Transcript Walking is Better than Talking

Governance:
Theory and Practice
The Basic Idea
• To Govern is to Steer
• Same as Government, Cybernetics
• But Governance has Taken on a Life of
Its Own
Governance as
Steering
• One of Several Meanings
• My Focus Will be on the Generic
Function of Steering
Other Definitions Beg the Question
Components of
Governance
1. Goal Selection
2. Goal Coherence
3. Policy Adoption
4. Policy Implementation
5. Accountability and Feedback
Something of the Roots
•
Really an Old Term, but Went out of Fashion
•
“Overloaded Government” ??—Trilateral Commission, etc.
•
Bielefeld Project as a More Positive Start
Steering and Control
But Recognized the Weakness of Many
Conventional Forms for Doing This
Strong Democratic Element, with the Seeming Technocracy
•
Initially Very German—Marin and Mayntz
•
Also Influenced by Sociologists/Philosophers
Fad and Fashion
• Like So Many Ideas has to some Extent
Become a Fad
• Now Everything is Governance
• Need to Set Bounds on What We Mean by
the Term
Contrast of State-Centric and
Society Centric Models
• State Centric
Familiar
Authority Based
Hierarchical
• Society Centric
Also Familiar
Negotiation Based
The Network
• Multiple Actors
• Relatively Open (?)
• Delegated Powers
• Varying Degrees of Autonomy
Logic of Network Governance
• Governments are Incapable
---Clumsy
---Bureaucratic
---Non-Democratic
• Networks Have Advantages
---Nimble
---Adaptive
---Inclusive
Networks one of Many Forms
of Informal, Interactive Governance
• Partnerships
• Soft Law
• Contracting
• Co-Production
Some Theoretical (and Real)
Issues
• Decision-Making I
• Decision-Making II
• Inclusiveness
• Accountability
Simultaneously, NPM Was
on The March
• Many of the Same Issues
Government Could Not Do It Alone
“Steering Not Rowing”
• But Different Solutions
Some Common Elements
Yet Very Importantly Different
• Often Thought to be the Same, but Far from It
Important to Emphasize
Accountability
• Democratic Reasons
• Efficiency Reasons
• Legal Reasons (Corruption)
• Learning
Shifting Nature of Acocuntability
• Away from formal/legal
• Toward Performance
• Need to Cope with Complex Forms of
Service Delivery
• Need to Cope with Greater Transparency
Some Common Points
• Governments have Problems
• Need for More Information
• Need for Legitimacy
• Need to Shed Costs
• Need for Choices
• Need for Democracy
Differences
•
Diagnoses
Monopoly
Hierarchy
•
Remedies
Competition
Participation
•
Policy
Choice I
Choice II
•
Good Governance
Efficiency
Effectiveness, Democracy
Return to Conceptualization
Steering (if at a Distance)
Goal Seeking, but Collective
Empirical Question as to How
Functionalist, in Two Ways
Then Think About the Modifiers
• Network
• Democratic
• “Good”
• “Multi-Level”
• Others?
Old Wine in New Bottles?
• “Good” Governance
Anti-Corruption
Transparency
• Multi-level Governance
Federalism
Inter-governmental Relations in General
What Makes it Governance?
The Common Problems Created
By Both Governance and NPM
• Incoherence
• Agency Loss
• Accountability
• Primacy of Politics
• Democracy
Issues
• Measurement
Outputs, Outcomes, Impacts
• Link With Legal Traditions
• Link With Types of Policy
• What is Success??
Trying to Move Forward
•
First, Catch the Dependent Variable
•
Minimalist Would be Making a Decision
But Most Cases Multiple Decisions
Chain Management
•
Goal Attainment?
Measurement
Whose Goals?
•
Success and Failure?
Substantive
Political
Degrees of Attainment
Governing in the Shadows
• Shadow of Hierarchy
• Shadow of Society
• Shadow of the Market
• Shadow of Expertise
The Two Futures
• Decentralization
• Recentralization
• Going On Together
• How to Make Compatible
Options
• Priority Setting
• Maintain Control of Key Elements
• Soft-Steering
• Performance Management
Summary
• Alternative Ways to Think of the Fundamental
Issue of Governing
• Perhaps Too Great Reliance on the Informal
• But a Set of Analytic Issues to Be Used in
Comparison