utions, participation channels and actors. Literature has uses the term network for capturing a particular type of social order. In contrast to the type of a state with the structuring principle of hierarchy and of a market with the structuring principle of anarchy, the particular feature of networks is the loose coupling of its components (Mayntz 1993). Network model neither has a fixed organizational structure nor a constant number or type of participants. In the political debate, green parties have mainly put the network as a model of political organization forward. This usage of the network model insists on the necessity to increase citizen participation in decision-making that is relevant to them and on the preservation of small-scale identities. The result is a bundle of different functional and territorial constituencies with overlapping and variable membership and without a clearly distinguishable center or geographical scope. It is based on the idea that the power of a unitary and hierarchical state with a center, which is usually far away from the real world and the citizens and prevents rather than furthers the development as a whole. As this problem cannot be dealt with be means democracy of majority in large and heterogeneous societies, this line of thinking stresses the need to grant far-reaching rights to people on the local and the regional level and with regard to those areas which are of direct relevance to them. This concept is often referred to under the label of a Europe of the regions (Diez 1996). The main political unit would thus be a region. Different regions would cooperate to different degrees and in varying ways in order to solve problems perceived to be common. In this view, political organization does not necessarily require a strong and powerful center but can as well work in such an open and fluid structure, using for example the opportunities provided by modern communication technology. Networks are main...
