Democratic procedures are often inefficient; efficient structures tend to be undemocratic. Focusing on Germany and Great Britain as case studies, this book explores the meaning and compatibility of efficiency and democracy in the project of modernizing advanced consumer democracies.

Chapter 1 Reform-Gridlock and Hyper-Innovation: Germany, Britain and the Project of Societal Modernisation (Ingolfur Blühdorn/Uwe Jun) Chapter 2 Radical Reformers-Defiant Electorates? Reform Policy and International Competitiveness under Schroeder And Blair (Uwe Jun) Chapter 3 Democracy, Efficiency, Futurity: Contested Objectives of Societal Reform (Ingolfur Blühdorn) Chapter 4 Democratic Deficits-Democratic Renewal: Political Detachment, Constitutional Reform and the Politics of Re-engagement in the UK (Lewis Baston) Chapter 5 Misguided Consensualism: Prospects for Reform of the Party-Dominated Federal System in Germany (Frank Decker) Chapter 6 From Corporatist Consensualism to the Politics of Commissions: German Welfare Reform and the Inefficiency of theAlliance for Jobs (Sven Jochem) Chapter 7 Efficiency versus Accountability? Modernizing Governance and Democratic Renewal in Britain, 1997-2005 (Matthew Flinders) Chapter 8 Efficiency in Political Communication and Public Management: A Comparative Analysis of New Labour and the SPD (Uwe Jun) Chapter 9 Efficiency versus Party Democracy? Political Parties and Societal Modernisation in Germany (Elmar Wiesendahl) Chapter 10 German Trade Unions: Partners for Reform or Trapped in Nested Games? (Josef Schmid and Christian Steffen) Chapter 11 Participation, Innovation and Efficiency: Social Movements and the New Genetics in Germany and the UK (Ian Welsh) Chapter 12 The Third Transformation of Democracy: On the Efficient Management of Late-modern Complexity (Ingolfur Blühdorn)