The research of the new modes of (educational) governance within multilevel political system is in the focus of political and educational science debates about democracy and efficiency in the context of the European Union (EU) as political system sui generis. New mode of governance enable EU institutions that with the use of new (non-obligatory) policy instruments steer member states towards collective problem solving and reaching common EU educational goals (e.g. Pierre and Peters 2000; Warleigh-Lack and Drachenberg 2011). European Commission (2007) stress the importance of effective education policies especially by the development of the concept of evidence-based policy, which corresponds with the theoretical debates about the output oriented governance, evidence-based governance, governance of comparison and governance of expert knowledge (e.g. Grek 2010; Lawn 2011; Ozga 2011). European Commission (2001) stress the importance of democratic education policies, especially with principles of good governance (openness, participation, accountability, coherence), which corresponds with the theoretical debates about the experimental democracy (e.g. de la Porte 2008; Sabel and Zeitilin 2010). The policy analysts (e.g. Lajh 2006; Büchs 2008) on the one side claim that successful implementation of (educational) public policies requires following both efficient and democratic principles. On the other side Borrás in Conzelman (2007) doubt that efficiency and democracy of new modes of governance are complementary. Taking into consideration that (non)complementarity, the additional two scientific backgrounds are important for the comprehensive understanding of the new mode of governance in the EU: a) Member states are not passive recipients of EU policies, what is even more significant for the policy fields under soft law, and therefore can develop their own and to their cultural, public and political traditions tailored ways of reaching common EU goals (e.g. Lajh and Štremfel 2011); b) multilevel nature of the EU, in which efficiency and democracy of the EU as a whole is dependent on the behaviour of all actors (at the EU, national, regional, local and individual level).

Influence of the new mode of governance on member states is seen as the most important for understanding democratic and efficient EU as a whole, but on the other hand also the most problematic one, since in-depth evidence about how new modes of governance operates within member states are still missing (e.g. Alexiadou and Lange 2013). Authors argue that the most critical is the absence of evidence about how it comes to the changes of national policy process – in the sense of its democracy and efficiency. The main research aim of the paper is on the basis of the complex multilevel framework and in-depth empirical data provided on the case study of Slovenia, explain, whether efficiency and democracy of education policies and practices are complementary. Therefore the paper is going to answer the following research question: Whether it is possible to effectively reach EU benchmarks in the field of education on the basis of democratic education policies and practices?

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