Mechanisms of Public Governance: Social Dialogue and Digital Democracy

This paper examines social dialogue and digital democracy as two complementary mechanisms of contemporary public governance and argues that their effectiveness depends on institutional integration rather than on technological sophistication alone. Drawing on the theory of new public governance, collaborative governance and digital-era governance, as well as on the legal framework of Ukraine and the practice of the European Union, the paper shows that digital tools expand the evidentiary, coordinating and legitimating functions of dialogue between public authorities, employers, trade unions and civil society, while dialogue institutions give digital participation the binding procedural character that it otherwise lacks. The paper identifies the principal risks of digital governance in a wartime and post-war setting, namely the digital divide, tokenistic consultation and cybersecurity vulnerability, and outlines directions for the institutional design of an integrated mechanism in Ukraine.