This article summarizes the outcome of governance research in political science during the past twenty years. It shows that despite an exceedingly voluminous fl ood of publications, governance research nevertheless still exhibits considerable empirical and theoretical defi cits. This stocktaking concludes that new forms of governance have become increasingly important for the production of collective goods, their effectiveness and efficiency, however, seems to be limited. As a result, modern societies must be afraid of having been caught in a 'governance trap'.