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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
Which role for the EU in sport?
Given the fact that…
• Limited EU competence!
-> Recognised autonomy
-> 165 TFEU: Supporting, coordinating
• Sports world eschews government
interference (cf private, self-grown networks
in other sectors)
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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: metagovernance 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 Geeraert
Parkstraat 47 – 5300
BE 3000 LEUVEN
tel. +32 (0) 498 630869
arnout.geeraert@kuleuven.be
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