Voters are more in-tuned with issue based politics instead of party lines. Issue networks are more concerned with solving problems, thus they offer a bridge between the executive and legislative branch. Increased maneuvering room offered to political executives by the loose- jointed play of influence. Although many feel issue networks offer a powerful resource for public servants, there are those critics who say issue networks threatened American government. The first and most important complaint is the democratic legitimacy .
Critics claim issue networks have no democratically based power.
Also, issue networks are bound to aggravate problems of legitimacy and public disenchantment. Heclo identified four reasons issue networks interfere with democratic legitimacy. Democratic political competition is based on the simplification of complex issues. The goal is to offer a few valid choices, and for the participants to be knowledgeable in a number of issues at one time. Democratic politics is designed to argue different view points, and at the end of a debate to reach some kind of agreement.