A Question of Time
Responsive and Responsible Democratic Politics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6407150 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Klaus H Goetz (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 379-399 |
| Publication date | 2014-03-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | West European Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0140-2382 • E-ISSN: 1743-9655 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01402382.2014.887880 |
| OpenAlex | W2046231956 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 27 |
| References cited | 28 |
Since 2008, European crisis politics have thrown the importance of time in democracy into sharp relief. The need for rapid action by national authorities, the EU and international organisations conflicts with the time-consuming nature of democratic deliberation; short-term political firefighting has given little consideration to the long-term sustainability and time consistency of policies; and decentralised decisions threaten effective synchronisation within multi-level governance systems. This article suggests that democratic politics requires a balance between the temporal characteristics of responsive and responsible politics. The timeframe for responsive politics is shaped by electoral cycles that encourage speedy action; short-term lags between political choices and their effects; and temporal discretion of decision-makers. The timeframe for responsible politics is characterised by time-consuming procedures; solutions that take time to unfold and are sustainable in the longer term; and the purposive synchronisation amongst actors and across policy domains and levels of policy-making. The finely balanced temporal constitution of democracy has been challenged in two fundamental ways. First, as the ability of decision-makers to work within the time limits of their mandates and to respond to the temporal expectations of the electorate decreases, the temporal ties that ensure the responsiveness of political authority to the electorate weaken. Second, the distinct temporal qualities of majoritarian and non-majoritarian institutions that encourage responsibility are called into question. Consequently, political time in Europe runs the risk of becoming both less responsive and less responsible
Action (physics · Consistency (knowledge bases · Constitution · Corporate governance · Deliberation · Democracy · Discretion · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · European Union Policy and Governance · Humanities and Social Sciences · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Public Administration
The rhetoric of responsibility in party manifestos (1980–2021)
No easy way out
Governing long-term policy problems
Involving Citizens in Crisis Management
Party Organisation of PiS in Poland
Democracy Amid Pandemic
Constructing the coronavirus crisis
Power-with leadership practices
Political Parties, Responsiveness, and Responsibility in Multi-Level Democracy
Political leadership in the European Union
How temporal discretion supports interagency coordination
Concurrency as crisis decision-making governance
Digitalization as a policy response to social acceleration
What makes decisions about urban water infrastructure forward looking? A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of investment decisions in 40 Dutch municipalities
The future of differentiated integration
The crisis of long-termism
Buying time for democracies? European Union emergency politics in the time of Covid-19
Covid-19 and territorial politics
Crisis, temporality and governmental policy agendas
The Effect of Ideological Distance on Voting Behaviour in Parliament Under Changing Economic Conditions
Politicians, the Representativeness Heuristic and Decision-Making Biases
Responsive versus responsible? Party democracy in times of crisis
Can Opposition Parties Be Responsible
Going in circles? The influence of the electoral cycle on the party behaviour in parliament
Time is on my side? The temporal proximity between elections and parties’ salience strategies
The ideological profile of the technocratic citizen
Justice and Future Generations
The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics
The Normalization of the European Commission
Liberal Democracy and the Social Acceleration of Time
The Politics of Limited Times
Implementing Long-Term Climate Policy
The Stability and Growth Pact
Electoral Volatility and the Dutch Party System
The Europeanization of State Administration
Political representation and government in the European Union
The evolving timescapes of European economic governance
The temporal constitution of the European Commission
Explaining Policy Responses to Danish and Irish Banking Failures during the Financial Crisis
Congruence between Citizens and Policymakers in Two Visions of Liberal Democracy
Responsive and Responsible? The Role of Parties in Twenty-First Century Politics
The Challenge to Party Government
The Politics of Speed
Three Temporal Dimensions to the Consolidation of Democracy
The Justification of Bicameralism
Democracy's Time Constraints
Fundamentals of Institutional Design
Political time in the EU
How does the EU tick? Five propositions on political time
The EU timescape
Fiscal Discretion and Elections in the Early Years of EMU
Social Acceleration
Conflicting Temporalities
Crisis of temporalities
| Unique citing works | 27 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,25 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2026 (13) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 26 |