Öppen samordning eller sluten teknokrati? - en demokratiteoretisk värdering av den öppna samordningsmetoden som styrinstrument

Sammanfattning: The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) constitutes a new way of governing through so-called ”soft law”. The method has in recent literature been censured as illegitimate, ineffective and not quite as open as the name suggests. Thus the aim of this thesis is to fundamentally audit the democratic status of the OMC. Another object is to put the method into a context of general European governance with the intention to grasp the complexity in which the method is compassed. The normative nature of the thesis is based on a democratic framework constructed by the theories of Fritz Scharpf and Robert Dahl. With the support of this framework, the analysis of the OMC’s democratic legitimacy shows that the method lacks in both input- and output-oriented legitimacy; it is not democratic nor effective, which means that the method in it’s current form must be rejected as democratically illegitimate. The suggestion is therefore to make the OMC accessible to a wider range of actors, to include elected bodies in the policy process and to embrace deliberation and participation by including citizens and associations in the policy making.