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An essential part in modeling out-of-equilibrium dynamics is the formulation of irreversible dynamics. In the latter, the major task consists in specifying the relations between thermodynamic forces and fluxes. In the literature, mainly two distinct approaches are used for the specification of force-flux relations. On the one hand, quasi-linear relations are employed, which are based on the physics of transport processes and fluctuation-dissipation theorems (de Groot and Mazur in Non-equilibrium thermodynamics, North Holland, Amsterdam, 1962 , Lifshitz and Pitaevskii in Physical kinetics. Volume 10, Landau and Lifshitz series on theoretical physics, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1981 ). On the other hand, force-flux relations are also often represented in potential form with the help of a dissipation potential (Silhavý in The mechanics and thermodynamics of continuous media, Springer, Berlin, 1997 ). We address the question of how these two approaches are related. The main result of this presentation states that the class of models formulated by quasi-linear relations is larger than what can be described in a potential-based formulation. While the relation between the two methods is shown in general terms, it is demonstrated also with the help of three examples. The finding that quasi-linear force-flux relations are more general than dissipation-based ones also has ramifications for the general equation for non-equilibrium reversible-irreversible coupling (GENERIC: e.g., Grmela and Öttinger in Phys Rev E 56:6620-6632, 6633-6655, 1997 , Öttinger in Beyond equilibrium thermodynamics, Wiley Interscience Publishers, Hoboken, 2005 ). This framework has been formulated and used in two different forms, namely a quasi-linear (Öttinger and Grmela in Phys Rev E 56:6633-6655, 1997 , Öttinger in Beyond equilibrium thermodynamics, Wiley Interscience Publishers, Hoboken, 2005 ) and a dissipation potential-based (Grmela in Adv Chem Eng 39:75-129, 2010 , Grmela in J Non-Newton Fluid Mech 165:980-986, 2010 , Mielke in Continuum Mech Therm 23:233-256, 2011 ) form, respectively, relating the irreversible evolution to the entropy gradient. It is found that also in the case of GENERIC, the quasi-linear representation encompasses a wider class of phenomena as compared to the dissipation-based formulation. Furthermore, it is found that a potential exists for the irreversible part of the GENERIC if and only if one does for the underlying force-flux relations.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]