The governance model of water authorities in the Netherlands builds on representation of three distinct groups: citizens, famers and nature reserve managers. These groups have a different but fixed numbers of board seats. Group representatives are chosen by their respective constituencies, being the general population, farmer associations and nature reserve organisatons. This governance model has no categeory name. The Dutch water authorities are often refered to as ‘functional democracies’, indicating they exist for a specific function (water management) rather than for general democracy.
The water board model and task democracy share the concepts of functional groups, fixed seats, and democratic representation. The models are different in administrative power (tax based water management vs voluntary coordination of transition efforts) the number of groups (3 vs 5), the scope of groups (water management interest groups excluding other sectors vs transition task groups including all sectors), the number of group seats (not equal vs equal), and the policy cycle (supervising a government agency vs initiating and monitoring system change).