ABSTRACT
ASSOCIATIVE democracy has come back into prominence as a doctrine of political reform in several countries. Its core claims are: that as many social activities as possible should be devolved to selfgoverning voluntary associations; that this will reduce the complexity of the state and enable the classical mechanisms of democratic representative government to work better; that self-governing voluntary associations should, wherever possible, replace forms of hierarchical corporate power-thus giving the affected interests voice and promoting government by consent throughout society, and not merely formally in the state; that for many essential public functions, such as health provision, education and welfare, voluntary associations should provide the service and receive public funds for doing SO.l
Associationalists contend that there are in any complex and free society different versions of what the good life should be, and that the task of the state is to help realise as many of these as possible, not to impose one of them. The state should perform its core functions of assuring public peace, adjudicating in clashes of norms and mobilising resources for public purposes. Unlike economic liberal doctrines that seek to limit the functions of the state and expand the scope of the market, associationalism seeks to expand the scope of democratic governance in civil society. It also, like free market doctrines, prornotes choice through competition; but it does so by giving individuals the option to move between nonprofit-making associations. Individuals have voice within associations and the periodic option to move between them.
