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Democratic governance in sports: which role for the EU?

Arnout Geeraert- HIVA-Research Institute for Work and Society, KU Leuven,Belgium- Institute for International and European Policy, KU Leuven, Belgium

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Which role for the EU in sport?

• Limited EU competence!-> Recognised autonomy-> 165 TFEU: Supporting, coordinating

• Sports world eschews government interference (cf private, self-grown networks in other sectors)

Given the fact that…

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Need for democratic control

• GLOBALISATION - Regulatory overstrech of Westphalian state

(Wolf, 2008)- Regulatory vacuum at international level (Scherer

and Palazzo, 2011) Powerful transnational actors are not

accountable (Baylis, Smith and Owens, 2008) -> MNCs, NGOs, but also… international sports

organisations!

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Need for democratic control

• GLOBALISATION: implications for democratic governance

-> Hirst (2000): “hierarchical organisations which are not subject to democratic control cannot be expected to have internal practices conductive to democratic manners”

-> Wolf (2008): “even the most prominent functional equivalents to the checks and balances cannot be provided by private actors alone”

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Complex environment

• In society: Increased complexity (multi-layered)-> horizontal methods of governance-> networked governance (state – civil society – market)

• In sport: commercialisation-> complex network with growing interdependence between business and sports world (Holt, 2007)

also calls for horizontal methods of governance

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Recent evolutions in sport governance

• EU involvement + stakeholder emancipation-> evolution towards networked governance!

• Potentially: democratic control PLUS efficiency!

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SOLUTION

• Second generation of governance network literature: how can we make them more democratic?

• “there is no reason why GN should NOT be held democratically accountable (Papadopoulos 2007)

• Desired role of public authority in the network: meta-governance through “steering”= via a series of more or less subtle and indirect forms of governance, politicians should seek to shape the free actions of the network actors in accordance with a number of pre-defined general procedural standards and substantial goals

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What does “steering” entail?

• European Commission: important role (cf role public administrators in governance networks)

• EU Parliament + Council:- Elected politicians: set overall goals- Support actions from the Commission

Why? Legitimise role Commission Whip in the window

(compliance)• Example: good governance principles• New research agenda!

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Contact details

Arnout GeeraertParkstraat 47 – 5300BE 3000 LEUVENtel. +32 (0) 498 630869arnout.geeraert@kuleuven.be