A Borrowed Mandate? Democratic Legitimacy of Inter-Municipal Entities – A Comparative Analysis

In contemporary democracies free elections – which are the main classical way of assuring democratic legitimacy – have become insufficient and are supplemented by the other, non-electoral, forms, like direct civic participation, meritocracy or academic and technical expertise. The development of multi-level governance structures additionally complicates this picture, as the legitimacy of decision-making bodies stems from different sources, and combines various modes of political representation. This refers inter alia to the institutions of inter-municipal cooperation (IMC), which are often seen as suffering from the “democratic deficit”. However, the legitimacy of IMC institutions is rarely an object of interest. The aim of our paper is to address this gap by describing and comparing the basic mechanisms assuring legitimacy of inter-municipal unions (IMUs) in four European countries: Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal and Spain (Catalonia). We compare both features of institutional design and opinions of inter-municipal administration revealed in an international survey conducted in 2015 and 2016. The analysis is structured along the distinction between in-put, throughput and out-put legitimacy.