From government to governance…to meta-governance: a systematic literature review

ABSTRACT

This study aims to disentangle the concept of meta-governance by systematically reviewing 79 articles. By investigating the who, what, why, and how of meta-governance, this article paints a detailed picture of its empirical manifestation. We conclude that the literature could benefit from better conceptualization and operationalization. From the results, we define meta-governance as ‘a practice by (mainly) public authorities that entails the coordination of one or more governance modes by using different instruments, methods, and strategies to overcome governance failures.’ Meta-governance therefore goes beyond the unproductive dichotomy in the ‘from government to governance’ debate.

KEYWORDS:

• Meta-governance
• systematic literature review
• government
• shadow of hierarchy
• governance

Acknowledgments

A previous version of this paper was presented at the Annual Work Conference 2017 of the Netherlands Institute of Government where we received useful comments. The authors also wish to thank Peter Tamás for his methodological advice as well as the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Notes

1. NB. Only the first four months of 2017 are included.

2. Articles with a structural focus are included in the category ‘undefined’ in Table 1.

3. in our data, 86 per cent of multilevel meta-governance relates to public meta-governors.

4. Of the multiple public meta-governors cases, 71 per cent correspond with public-private networks, undefined cases excluded.

Additional information

Funding

Contributions by JG and KT were funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research [NWO grant no. 409-14-017] Contributions by RB were funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research [NWO grant no. 451-17-0064140].

Notes on contributors

Jonna Gjaltema

Jonna Gjaltema, MSc. is a PhD candidate at the Public Administration and Policy group at Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands. Her research addresses the relationship between public and private governance of sustainable global value chains. After finishing her Master’s in International Relations and Diplomacy, she worked as a policy advisor to a Dutch Member of the European Parliament and as a policy advisor at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Robbert Biesbroek

Robbert Biesbroek is Associate Professor at the Public Administration and Policy group of Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands. His research interests include comparative public policy, mechanisms of complex decision making, dynamics of policy (dis)integration, and the political and bureaucratic responses to climate change. He is recipient of a Dutch NWO-VENI research grant (2018–2021) and (co)authored over 50 scientific articles in the fields of public policy and climate change.

Katrien Termeer

Katrien Termeer is Professor and Chair of the Public Administration and Policy group at Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands. Her research addresses the governance of wicked problems in the interrelated fields of food, agriculture, climate and energy. Before, she worked at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam; Technical University of Delft; the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food; and Sioo, a Centre for Organizational Change and Learning. She is also a Crown-appointed member of the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands.