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Abstract
The premise of this article is that when comparing governance systems, a greater focus on the complexity of the environment facing nation states would provide a step forward. National regimes should not be compared in a vacuum but rather with respect to the governance challenges they are likely to face in an unpredictable world. It is necessary to recognize the adaptive complexity of the systems generating those challenges and yet how they also providing the ingredients for emergent solutions. It is argued that exploring interactive capacity rather than formal structures will provide a stronger indication of whether governance challenges are likely to be met. It is concluded that different types of national regimes could, in principle, deliver effective interactive governance capacity in different ways, but each can generate tipping points that could lead to failure.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 World Bank, Governance and Development.
2 Abramowitz and Sarah Repucci, “Democracy Beleaguered,” 128–142.
3 Fukuyama, “Reflections on Chinese Governance,” 379–391.
4 Stoker, “Regime Theory and Urban Politics,” 54–71.
5 Page, Diversity and Complexity, 116.
6 Simon, “Invariants of Human Behavior,” 7.
7 Gigerenzer, Gut Feelings; Gigerenzer, Rationality for Mortals.
8 Rhodes, “Understanding Governance,” 1244–1245.
9 Klijn and Koppenjan, “Governance Network Theory,” 4.
10 Ansell and Gash, “Collaborative Governance in Theory and Practice,” 543–571.
11 Ansell, Trondal, and Ogard, Governance in Turbulent Times.
12 Galaz and Pierre, “Superconnected, Complex and Ultrafast,” 12.
13 Marr, “Why Everyone Must Get Ready For The 4th Industrial Revolution.”
14 Timms and Heimans, New Power.
15 Maslin, Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction.
16 Frontex, The European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union.
17 Page, Diversity and Complexity.
18 Holland, Complexity, 24.
19 See note 5 above.
20 See note 5 above, p. 117.
21 Geyer and Cairney, Handbook on Complexity and Public Policy; Morçöl, A Complexity Theory for Public Policy.
22 Cairney, “Complexity Theory in Political Science and Public Policy,” 346–354.
23 Hallsworth and Rutter, Making Policy Better, 9.
24 See note 5 above, 120.
25 Duit and Galaz, “Governance and Complexity,” 303.
26 Ibid., 311–335.
27 Jennings and Stoker, “The Bifurcation of Politics,” 372–382.
28 Axelrod and Cohen, Harnessing Complexity.
29 Diamond, “Elections Without Democracy: Thinking,” 21–35.
30 Berg-Schlosser, “The Emergence of Democracy,” 354.
31 See note 28 above.
32 See note 9 above. Chhotray and Stoker, Governance Theory and Practice; Klijn and Koppenjan, “Governance Network Theory,” 187–206; Rhodes, “Understanding Governance,” 1243–1264; Peters and Pierre, Comparative Governance.
33 Katz and Bradley, The Metropolitan Revolution.
34 Ibid., ix.
35 Power, Ploger, and Winkler, Phoenix Cities; Katz and Nowak, The New Localism.
36 Bason, Leading Public Sector Innovation; Osborne and Brown, Handbook of Innovation in Public Services.
37 John, Field Experiments in Political Science and Public Policy.
38 King and Crewe, The Blunders of our Governments.
39 Bell, The China Model, 185.
40 Heilmann, Experimentation under Hierarchy.
41 See note 10 above.
42 Gerschewski, “The Three Pillars of Stability,” 13–38.
43 Rothstein, “The Chinese Paradox of High Growth and Low Quality of Government,” 537–538.
44 See note 39 above.
45 Ibid., 545.
46 Lindblom, “Still Muddling, Not Yet Through,” 517.
47 Runciman, The Confidence Trap.
48 Lijphart, Thinking About Democracy; Hendriks, Vital Democracy.
49 See note 39 above, 192.
50 Stoker and Taylor-Gooby, “How Social Science can Contribute to Public Policy,” 239–248.
51 See note 23 above.
52 Müller, What is Populism; Urbinati, Democracy Disfigured; Stoker, “Can the Governance Paradigm Survive the Rise of Populism,” 3–18.
53 See note 39 above; Minzer, End of an Era.
54 Levitsky and Ziblatt, How Democracies Die.
55 Shirk, “The Return to Personalistic Rule,” 22–36.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Gerry Stoker
Gerry Stoker is Centenary Research Professor at the University of Canberra, Australia and Chair in Governance at the University of Southampton, UK. He has authored or edited 33 books and published over 120 refereed articles or chapters in books. His work has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Hebrew, Portuguese, Greek and Chinese.
His early work focused on issues of local government and urban politics. Today the major themes of his work are on Governance, Political Discontent, Behavioural Change and Evidenced-Based Impact. Books reflecting on these issues include: Governance Theory and Practice (2009); Why Politics Matters: Making Democracy Work (2006/2017); Nudge, Nudge, Think, Think (2013) and Evidenced-Based Policymaking. Methods that Matter (2016). Professor Stoker has also sustained a wider contribution to the thought leadership for the discipline of political science through his editorship of Theory and Methods of Political Science (1995/2002/2010/2017) and The Relevance of Political Science (2015). He has been an engaged scholar throughout his career working, with governments, think tanks, public servants, political parties and civic organisations in many different countries.