Governance as a conceptual development in the analysis of policy

Abstract

The current interest among political scientists in collaborative and deliberative ways of governing has emerged as part of a discourse about ‘governance’, originating with claims that the practice of governing is changing, that rule by the application of state power is being transformed into the collaborative accomplishment of order through a process of negotiation among a range of participants, government and non-government, and that consequently, political scientists need a new concept to describe this form of rule. Closer examination suggests that the place of non-government in governing has been long recognised, but under-theorised, and that the use of ‘governance’ reflects less a change in the practice of governing than in the practice of analysis, which now recognizes and labels previously-tacit elements of governing.

Keywords:

• governance
• policy analysis
• organizational complexity
• theory-building
• interpretive policy analysis