1. Steering from the Centre: Strengthening Political Control in Western Democracies

The challenge of policy coordination

“…Organizations such as ministries of finance, budget offices, personnel offices, and the like fit into the category of central agencies (see Dahlstrom et al 2010). These organizations are charged with making the rest of government pursue, in so far as possible, the priorities of the government of the day, and with using the budget and their influence over legislation to make that happen.…”

Public Sector Governance in Australia

“…Coordination falls within steering (Dahlström, Peters and Pierre 2011). Following one scheme for analysing levels of 'coordination' generically (Metcalfe 1994), steering might cover activities such as government strategy and establishing central priorities, whereas coordination within steering would include the search for agreement and avoidance of divergences among departments.…”

Introduction: public administration reforms in Europed

“…Within this context, they argue for a rediscovery of the state. Some authors believe we have now entered a post-NPM era, dominated by governance and network-style approaches to combat the fragmentation following NPM reforms and to reassert central political control (Dahlström et al 2011). These approaches are sometimes referred to as second generation post-NPM reforms (Christensen and Laegreid 2007), or as third generation reforms (Halligan 2007).…”