Harnessing Complexity within Governance Networks in a Legitimate Way : The Effects of Connective Management and Throughput Legitimacy on Network Performances

The relationship between network management, network performances, and democratic legitimacy is a highly debated issue. In this article, we explore this relationship theoretically. Building on the literature, we expect to find that democratic throughput legitimacy has a partly mediating role in the relationship between connective network management and network performances. To empirically test this relation, we conducted research by way of a survey among participants involved in complex water projects in The Netherlands, using structural equation modeling to analyze our data. The results indicate that governance networks have indeed democratic potential but, in order to make this potential manifest, network managers can play a key “connective” role. Furthermore, it seems that throughput legitimacy positively affects network performances and has indeed a strong mediating effect on the relationship between connective network management and network performances. Network managers can create important conditions for the evolution of a democratic governance process, but are dependent on the way stakeholders interact with one another and the democratic quality of that interaction