The political science literature on network governance often suggests the potential benefits of networks in terms of their outcomes, achieved through coordinating the interests and expertise of stakeholders, whilst fostering innovation. Yet, the subject of emerging discussion in this field is the concern that governance could potentially undermine the principles of democratic governance (Klijn et al. 2007; Sørensen 2015). There is significant scope for the development of conceptual frameworks for enabling closer engagement with these closely inter-related, evaluative questions of democratic accountability, legitimacy, outcomes and effectiveness.
Responding to emerging recognition of the need to develop frameworks for governance evaluation (Torfing et al. 2012), prior work by this author proposes an approach with a political economy orientation (Greenwood 2011; Greenwood 2016). Drawing particularly from the classic contributions of Hayek and Lindblom, the approach includes a distinctive focus upon the epistemological challenges for governance and policy actors seeking to enable coordination and innovation in the face of policy challenges involving highly complex choices and trade-offs. This paper explores the potential to apply this approach to assess the relationship between effectiveness and democratic legitimacy in different governance contexts. To further develop the approach for this purpose, a range of recent scholars are drawn upon, who, in different ways, consider the epistemological challenges for governance of the kind highlighted by Hayek and their implications for how we conceptualise democracy (e.g. Knight et al. 2011; Geyer et al. 2010; DiZerega 2011; Pennington 2011). To illustrate the potential application of the approach, recent scholarship assessing public-private partnerships as a form of network governance is critically assessed. A potential future research agenda is outlined for a post-positivist, outcome orientated evaluation of PPPs across a range of policy contexts.
