ABSTRACT
It is widely accepted that new governance structures are required to address the challenges of sustainable rural development, given the nature of the problems faced, and the incapacity – and eroded legitimacy – of existing modes of government to address these problems (Goodwin 1998; Murdoch and Abram 1998). Equally widespread is the assumption (often elevated to a normative principle) that these new structures should bring together stakeholders to develop policy in a collaborative fashion through deliberation (Hajer and Kesselring 1999; Healey 1997; Shortall 2004). The success of these innovations rests, however, on their ability to generate sufficient legitimacy to sustain their capacity for effective policy making, raising the questions of what constitutes legitimacy for such processes, and, further, how this might be assessed normatively. This chapter makes an attempt to address these questions.
