Bringing Governments Back in: Governance and Governing in Comparative Policy Analysis

Abstract

In many visions of governance, governments are portrayed as playing a "steering", rather than "rowing", role. The widespread use of privatization, deregulation, decentralization and third-party governments are often mentioned as concrete manifestations of the broad transformation which has led to new forms of governance. Examined more closely, however, the large and growing body of literature on governance has done little to clarify what is "new" about "new governance". Does it indicate a clean break from institutions and processes of the past, or is it merely chronicling an assortment of instrument changes necessary for governments to adapt to changing socioeconomic conditions? Do the changes really indicate the emergence of a new system in which the government is merely another player on a par with societal and international counterparts? More fundamentally, is governance a normative framework reflecting the hopes and desires of those who prefer smaller governments, or an empirical description of an existing reality? This article briefly surveys existing studies in the field as an introduction to the articles in this special issue. These articles provide strong arguments in support of the view that governments continue to play a pivotal role in policy-making, and that if this fact is not taken into consideration then the perception is of governance risk being anchored to a merely normative or prescriptive view rather than an empirically robust one.

Local governments in the driving seat? A comparative analysis of public and private responsibilities for adaptation to climate change in European and North-American cities

“…Despite the 'wickedness' of climate adaptation, the shift from government to governance, as characterized by a shift from public to more private responsibilities, has not (yet) materialized. This research thus confirms the findings of recent studies showing that governments continue to play an important role in different fields of policy-making and at different levels of government (Capano et al, 2015), hinting that governance is rather a normative, idealized view rather than empirical reality. For instance, the lack of a profound shift towards governance has also been found in empirical research in older environmental policy fields such as transport policy (Hysing, 2009), forest conservation policy (Arts, 2014;Hysing, 2009), water supply policy (Lieberherr & Truffer, 2015), climate innovation policy (Jordan & Huitema, 2014), urban environmental policy and noise policy (Weber, 2013).…”

“…Jordan, Wurzel, & Zito, 2005;Rhodes, 2007;Van Kersbergen & Waarden, 2004), in which power and authority are transferred from the government downwards and upwards to other levels of government, as well as outwards to private actors. This has resulted in the formation of new governance arrangements in which governments tend to have a steering rather than rowing role, although this is argued by some to be more of an ideal or normative prescription than that it reflects empirical reality (Arts, 2014;Capano, Howlett, & Ramesh, 2015;Jordan et al, 2005). The concept of governance is vague.…”

Steering transformations under climate change: capacities for transformative climate governance and the case of Rotterdam, the Netherlands

“…Knowledge generation and integration about social-ecological system dynamics enable anticipating emergent disturbances and uncertainties and identifying available options in light of these (Chapin et al 2010;Tàbara et al 2017). Decentralised self-organisation and context-specific rule-making support the abilities of organisations, communities and individuals to independently and flexibly respond to changes and disturbances (Folke et al 2005;Dietz et al 2003;Garmestani and Benson 2013 Niche experimentation and leadership (Raven et al 2010;Brown et al 2013;Loorbach et al 2015); scaling and replicating (Ehnert et al 2018) Experimentation and leadership (Westley et al 2013;Moore and Westley 2011;Olsson et al 2006;Marshall et al 2012) Orchestrating: coordinating multi-actor processes Multi-actor processes across scales, sector and time; synergies and trade-offs; contestation and goal conflicts Orchestration (Abbott et al 2015;Abbott 2017;Chan et al 2015) Intermediation and meta-governance (Hodson and Marvin 2010;Hodson et al 2013;Loorbach 2014; Polycentric governance (Galaz et al 2011) Meta-governance (Sørensen 2006;Kooiman and Jentoft 2009;…”

“…They also research transformative agency for innovation and experimentation (Westley et al 2013;Olsson et al 2014). Finally, meta-governance literature specifies processes of coordination to facilitate goal alignment and concerted action of multiple actors and networks in fragmented governance systems (Sørensen 2006;Kooiman and Jentoft 2009;Capano et al 2015).…”

“…Transition and resilience scholars highlight the importance of intermediary spaces and strategic partnerships for integrating and mediating different social interests and resources within polycentric governance structures Hodson and Marvin 2010). Meta-governance literature helps identifying activities that facilitate coordination in fragmented governance systems focusing on alignment, mediation and rule-setting (Jessop 1998;Capano et al 2015;Sørensen 2006).…”