Governance as a Theory

Practice, and Dilemma

The SAGE Handbook of Governance
Mark Bevir (2011)
 Morphing Theories of the ubiquitous “G”

“Theories and issues of social coordination and the nature of all patterns of rule.”
(General Level)
“Various new theories and practices of governing and the dilemmas to which they give rise.”
(specific reference)
These new Theories, Practices, And Dilemmas
place less emphasis than did their predecessors on hierarchy and the state,
and More On Markets And Networks.

The new Theories, Practices, And Dilemmas of governance are combined in concrete activity

THEORIES inspire PRACTICES create DILEMMAS require

people to act in ways dilemmas and encourage attempts new theoretical reflection and
that help give rise to new to comprehend them in practical activity if they are to be
practices and dilemmas. theoretical terms.. adequately addressed.
 THEORIES inspire people to act in ways that help give rise to new practices and
dilemmas.

 Social sciences theories (20th C). transformed our understanding of society and politics.

 Challenged the older idea of the state as a natural and unified expression of a nation based on
common ethnic, cultural, and linguistic ties and possessing a common good.

 Many made people more aware of the role of pressure groups, self-interest, and social networks in
the policy process.

 Late 20th C, some of these theories then inspired attempts to reform the public sector and develop
new policy instruments.

These theories draw attention to the processes and interactions through which all kinds of social
interests and actors combine to produce the policies, practices, and effects that define current
patterns of governing.

 New public management owes Rational Choice and Especially Principal–Agent Theory,
 Joined-up governance drew on developments in Organizational And Institutional Theory.
 PRACTICES create dilemmas & encourage attempts to comprehend them in theoretical terms

Public sector reforms ~ transformed practices of governance across Diverse Levels And In Diverse
Territories.

The reforms have given rise to complex new practices that rarely correspond to the intentions of the
reformers.

What does the state now look like?

What role do non-governmental organizations play in the formation and implementation of policies
and the delivery of services?

DILEMMAS require
new theoretical reflection and practical activity if they are to be adequately addressed.

dilemmas that this new governance poses for practitioners.

What are these theories?
What are these governance practices?
What are these dilem-mas that grew
out of these practices?
 THEORIES inspire PRACTICES create DILEMMAS require
people to act in ways dilemmas and encourage attempts new theoretical reflection and
that help give rise to new to comprehend them in practical activity if they are to be
practices and dilemmas. theoretical terms.. adequately addressed.

Policy Network Theory The Stateless State Legitimacy

Rational Choice Theory The Persistence of Hierarchy Collaborative Governance
Contracting Out
Interpretive Theory Public Management Participation
Organization Theory Budgeting and Finance Leadership
Institutional Theory Partnerships Network Management
Systems Theory Multijurisdictional Regulation
Local Governance Social Inclusion
Metagovernance
Non-governmental Capacity Building
State–Society Relations Organizations
Policy Instruments and Decentralization
Transgovernmental Networks
Governance Global Governance Governing the Commons
Development Theory Regulation
Measuring Governance Sustainable Development
 distinctive features of governance
 hybrid practices: combining administrative systems
with market mechanisms and non-profit organizations.
 Novel forms of mixed public–private or entirely governing arrangements,
private forms of regulation are developing. different levels of governance,
and multiple stakeholders
 multijurisdictional and often transnational*: Current
patterns of governance combine people and are linked together in
institutions across different policy sectors and

NETWORKS
different levels of government (local, regional,
national, and international).

 Increasing range and plurality of stakeholders.

▪ Wider variety of NGOs are becoming active participants in
governing, ‘explosion’ of advocacy groups, (Arguably)
expansion of philanthropic organizations
▪ Increasing use of third-party organizations to deliver state
services.
Environmental scientists ~ natural
areas like watersheds or estuaries
are often governed by networks of
stakeholders and government
agencies.
 THEORIES PRACTICES DILEMMAS

governing processes are hybrid and multijurisdictional,

linking plural stake-holders in complex networks.
“draws attention to the complex processes and interactions that constitute patterns of rule”
Recognizes the diverse activities that often blur the boundary of state and society.

The new theories The new practices of The dilemmas of managing and reforming hybrid
have drawn rule that have risen patterns of rule that combine aspects of market,
attention to the since the 1970s, network, and hierarchy.
presence or especially the
Current public problems rarely fall neatly in the
possibility of apparent growth of
jurisdictions of specific agencies or even states.
markets and markets and
networks as networks. Require new governing strategies to span
means of jurisdictions, link people across levels of
coordination. government, and mobilize a variety of
stakeholders.
We need to know now the
scholarly focus of governance
studies…
 ‘Governance’ – in crisis?
A cross-disciplinary critical review
of three decades of
‘governance’ scholarship
Aniko Horvath
Centre for Global Higher Education 2017, London, UK
…the Modus Operandi of the governance field.
[m]ost of the time, we take the meaning of our
concepts for granted. (…)

Usually concepts tend to be reduced to static

“variables”, which are broken down into
“indicators”, without taking into account the
rich history and multiple meaning of the
concept underpinning the variable.
The reasons for this range is from the modern
belief that we actually can arrive at the true
meaning of a concept, which is singular and
simple, …to the more pragmatic view that
opening up concepts sows unnecessary
confusion and goes against their very purpose
of reducing complexity.
Berenskoetter, Felix. ‘Approaches to Concept Analysis’. Millennium 45, no. 2 (January 2017): 151–73. .
And so we usually resort to an authoritative
definition that settles the matter by quoting a
well-known scholar
who presumably thought about the matter
carefully and whose definition is popular
and/or makes intuitive sense.
Having fixed the meaning of our concept (or
so we believe) we go on with our research.
Concise Summary Of Issues & Concepts (Most Commonly)
Associated With Governance

formal, informal
and embodied
Commonalities In Governance Scholarship Thematic field/ problem-
focused approaches
Governance’ as a frequent/reoccurring
focus for the following academic Theories/research methods
disciplines/fields: Corporate governance
Healthcare governance
International Relations
Non-profit governance
Political Science
Public sector governance
Management Studies Fields are NON mutually exclusive
Education/HE governance
Business Studies High level of borrowing/transfer of
theories Urban governance
Economics
Energy (sector) governance
(International) Law
although Environmental governance
Public Policy/Administration
theory and terminology are shared, Financial/fiscal/market
Development Studies
governance
Higher Education Studies
understandings of what exactly Central banks & governance
‘governance’ might mean Development & governance
Less frequently, but also a focus in the in each empirical context Human rights & governance
following disciplines/fields: VARIED. ‘Alternative’ governance
Sociology (e.g. social enterprise; governance
Anthropology through social learning; governance
History through epistemic communities / creative
Regional Studies commons are often grouped under this
Geography label by scholars)
Based on the scholarship, what are the common and/or
most prominent problematiques within governance?”
Six (6) Emergent Commonalities ‘posed to address the comparative and synthesizing aim.
Shared among central organizing questions (governance studies) and cut across social science
disciplines, thematic fields and empirical contexts:

Related Sub-questions Within Scholarship

What are the relationships among ‘governance’ actors?

1. Who are the actors ?
2. What practices/activities are associated?
3. What techniques/mechanisms are deployed?
4. What is the scope?
5. On what values is governance based?
6. What are the outcomes of governance?
How are these relations negotiated?
What means do different ‘governance’ actors have available
to be able to negotiate successfully/productively for their
aims, goals and interests?
Why do these actors act as they do?
What formal & informal rules restrict or enable their actions?
How are such rules communicated, imposed, implemented
and enforced?
Governance’ and
its six ‘emergent
commonalities’

Dynamics among Governance

the domain
centering on
governance
Actors Most frequently the focus of governance studies

• almost always conceptualized as bounded groups of individuals and/or

organizations that act either in synchrony to reach shared goals/interests
• e.g. as in network theories, where state-civil-corporate actors are said to cooperate in
non-hierarchical/ partnership/ autonomous relations)

• or as competing and self-interested groups of actors situated at different

levels within organizational and national structures and across the globe
• e.g. as in development theories that often juxtapose state-civil-corporate actors with
local-national-global players;
• or as in corporate governance theories that often present managers/CEOs as embedded
in highly hierarchical structures, having conflicting interests to and relations with their
employees, boards and governing bodies).
Actors Most frequently the focus of governance studies
States / governments,
bureaucracies, central banks,
companies/businesses, ‘markets’,
trade unions, industry players, the
media, global organizations, civil
society, experts, NGOs, regulators,
boards, and transnational
communities of interest and/or
practice
(e.g. epistemic, scientific, professional,
business, online/virtual communities, and
the ‘international community’ which
includes the EU and states acting through
supra-national agreements and
organizations).
many processes that impact on and produce
heterogeneity within groups
– as well as the mechanisms that influence
group formation, boundary drawing and
boundary challenges –
are rarely explored and problematized.
This gap in conceptualizations of the production
of heterogeneity within groups of actors
has important implications for the ways
research on
governance activities and techniques
is framed and carried out.
 top of hierarchies and (re)producing activities *

Disruptions often take place

incrementally and
horizontally, among actors
having roughly similar Vertical Struggle
‘amounts’ of power often imply that the existence of hierarchies in thought to be
governance activities and relations are inherently disruptive of
‘bad’ and so the aim should be to completely and
diminish and/or change them. challenging
such
hierarchies

activities of grassroots organizations, individuals,

communities, networks, etc.
 top of hierarchies and (re)producing activities *

Gaps In Research limited understanding of how

Actors –– are conceptualized as bounded groups and so such ‘elites’ control access and
relations within groups and on the same level are less create frameworks that limit the
well explored and understood. numbers of those included in
and empowered by
For example, Agency And Stewardship Theories often ‘networked/cooperative’
focus only on relationships between a small number of activities (e.g. de Sousa Santos 2009,
actors to understand how competing interests of different
actors influence practices in organizations, (arguably) hierarchical relations are
disappearing practices~ replaced
while Resource Dependence Theory focuses on binary by cooperative and network(ed)
relations between external resources and their influence relations,* ~ realities don’t
validate the claims
on an organization's structures and behaviors.

activities of grassroots organizations, individuals,

communities, networks, etc.

Now Extremely Wide Ranging:
legal frameworks to steering
and regulations;
from governance codes of
conduct to cultural norms and
values;
From political technology
policies to audits, indicators,
assessments and rankings;
and from shared and patchwork
governance to networked,
devolved, and cooperative
governance
techniques through which ‘governance
actors’ attempt to change organizations
and society
:
multiplicity of techniques co-exist even
in the smallest of organizations –
contradict the theories selected for analysis of such
empirical findings.
These theories often acknowledge the existence of
only one or another technique, or place one
technique in a dominant position to the others.
Sridhar, Khagram and Pang’s (2008) complex and
critical work on global health governance
 is (or should) always encompass the ability to
reach/achieve field-specific, practice-oriented goals

Setting Direction; Exercising Power And Promoting Fairness, Transparency And

Authority; Strengthening Democratic
Systems; Instituting Good, Equitable And
Sound Systems; Resolving Conflicts;
Achieving And Maintaining Economic
Sustainability And Long-term Financial
Viability; Safeguarding Assets; Achieving
Organizational And Institutional Change;
Empowering Communities; Steering
Health And Education Systems;
Accountability; Managing Risk; Providing
Public Goods; Protecting Stakeholder
Interests; Improving Efficiency And
Productivity; Getting Value For Money;
Capacity Building; Creating Order And
Legitimacy; Course Correction In
Response To Unanticipated Events;
Curbing Executive Excesses;
Preventing Future Institutional,
Systemic And Moral Failures, Etc.
 Essential characteristic of governance scholarship:
~ always ‘exists’, ‘takes place’, ‘is done’ etc. for particular reasons
and with particular aims in mind, and/or reflects some overarching
‘architecture’ that highlights its political nature and the fact that it is the
result of purposeful actions taken by thoughtful actors.

Ansell and Torfing: Bevir: (2016: 1)

handbook on governance, (2016: 554).
“governance theories tend to be
process-oriented and context-
sensitive” and are “linked with practical
efforts at solving complex problems in
new and creative ways”
“setting the scope of governance
is almost always the result of
‘practice’ while ‘theory’ tries to
make sense of it, justify it, and
incorporate it into existing or new
theoretical frameworks.
 Scope and values are frequently linked as inter-dependent ~
the scope of governance is often defined as finding and/or
determining the means by which actors – usually practitioners,
not scholars – can achieve the ‘values’ they put forward.

• The scope of G: "promoting responsibility, • Governance “is concerned with

fairness, transparency and accountability" (WB,
Atacik and Jarvis 2006)
• “In general, governance issues pertain to the ability
of government to develop an efficient, effective,
and accountable public management process” that
is open to citizen participation and that strengthens
rather than weakens a democratic system of
government. (USAID, Office of Democracy & Governance
1998)
concepts of democracy and the
rule of law” where “democracy is a
“universal value” based on the
freely expressed will of the people
to determine their own political,
economic, social and cultural
systems and full participation in all
aspects of their lives” (UNDP 2012: 3-5)
 “governance cannot be understood – especially Impact On
not over time – unless one considers the Actions & Processes
dynamics that move the field, Practice’, ‘Theory’
And ‘Dilemma’, ALL AT THE SAME TIME:
normative values: ‘ought to’
attempts are made to understand the dilemmas guide actions & processes
raised by the ways ‘value’ and ‘values’ are being
implemented in ‘practice’.
great efforts are made to bring
Scholars must work out how such dilemmas can governance into line with such
be operationalized and incorporated in empirical ideal-typical guidelines.
research and theory formation. ~ finding and
asking the ‘right’ questions….
 Focus On ‘Values’ ~ Asking The ‘Right’ Questions:
• Where does power, authority, and legitimacy lie in the • What are the links between practices of
new forms/modes of governance? How is it achieved governance and their outcomes on work, when
and shared? efficiency, sustainability, transparency,
• How do different forms, models, templates, and accountability, predictability, fairness, responsibility,
practices impact on everyday work, life, social forms, autonomy, freedom, safety, sustainability, cultural
and organizing? pluralism, sovereignty, representation are all seen
as core values of governance?
• In turn, how can protest, negotiation, compliance, and
resistance be conceptualized and acknowledged in
• How can the ‘public good/private good’ binary
such models?
be conceptualized for the purposes of
• What role do norms, ethical-moral issues, and trust play governance?
in governance?
• How can the ‘public good/private good’ binary be
conceptualized for the purposes of governance?
• Whose interests are being protected by
governance and whose values promoted?
 Strengthening Democratic Systems; clear distinction between
Resolving Conflicts; ideal-typical models &
Achieving Economic Sustainability; empirical findings
Empowering Communities; Achieving
Organizational And Institutional Change; Without that
Providing Public Goods; understanding
Improving Efficiency And Productivity; it is equally impossible to
Capacity Building;
Creating Order And Legitimacy;
Curbing Executive Excesses; Design Informed And
Workable Policies
#1 often a myriad of large and small variables The underlying
(and outcomes) that must be compared to be able
to isolate those that have had an impact. processes
• Most of the time, this is impossible and/or that play out
cannot be thoroughly evaluated.
in different arenas
• Second, outcomes are often explained without all to produce
underlying processes being explored and
identified. A VARIETY OF
OUTCOMES
• These PROCESSES can be productively used
as linkages that allow for the comparison of
sectors, not the specific outcomes of those
processes
Missing Link
Ecological
Studies

Scale and Cross-Scale

Dynamics Governance and
Information in a Multilevel
World

David W. Cash, W. Neil Adger, Fikret Berkes,

Po Garden, Louis Lebel, PerOlsson, Lowell
Pritchard and Oran Young
Source: Ecology and Society, Vol. 11, No. 2
(Dec 2006) .Resilience Alliance Inc.
 “Interactions may occur
within or across scales,
leading to substantial
complexity in dynamics.

Cross-scale and cross-

level interactions may
change in strength and
direction over time. this
type of changing interaction
as the “dynamics of the
cross-scale or cross-level
linkages.”

Changes may arise from the

consequences of those
interactions or be caused by
other variables.
 “multiscale” =
more than one
scale, but without
implying that
there are
important cross-
level or cross-
scale
interactions.

“Cross-level” interactions
refer to interactions among
levels within a scale

“cross-scale” = interactions
across different scales, (
between spatial domains and
jurisdictions )
Summary
section
 Theories, Practices, And Dilemmas v.2

Economic Social

Technological
Legal

Political Environmental
 Economic Social Theories,
Practices, And
Dilemmas v.2

Technological
Legal

Political Environmental
 Economic Social Theories,
Practices, And
Dilemmas v.2

Technological
Legal

Political Environmental
 Economic Social

Technological
Legal Fourth Industrial
Revolution

Political Environmental
Systemic Evolution of Variations Accumulated 2.0

Economic Social

Technological
Legal FourthIndustrial
Fourth Industrial
Revolution
Revolution

Political Environmental
 We thrive on negative
criticism, which is fun to write
Anton:
and to read.
In many ways, the work of
But the bitter truth we critics
a critic is easy.
must face is that,
We risk very little, yet
in the grand scheme of
enjoy a position over those
things,
who offer up their work and
the average piece of junk is
their selves to our
probably
judgment.
more meaningful than our
criticism designating it so.
 But there are times when a
critic truly risks something,
and that is in the
Discovery And Defense
Of The New.
The world is often unkind to
new talent, new creations.
THE NEW NEEDS
FRIENDS.
Last night, I experienced
something new,
an extraordinary meal from a
singularly unexpected source.
To say that both the meal and its
maker have
challenged my preconceptions
about fine cooking is a gross
understatement.
They have rocked me to my
core!
Not everyone can become a great artist,

but a great artist can come from

anywhere.