Governance, Coordination, and Evaluation

The Case for an Epistemological Focus and a Return to C. E. Lindblom

Bibliographic Data

ID12420014
AuthorsDan Greenwood (0000-0001-7330-3027, University of Westminster, London, UK, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume69
Issue1
Pages30-42
Publication date2015-12-20
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Research Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1065-9129 • E-ISSN: 1938-274X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1065912915620048
OpenAlexW2253863503
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited57

While much political science research focuses on conceptualizing and analyzing various forms of governance, there remains a need to develop frameworks and criteria for governance evaluation. The post-positivist turn, influential in recent governance theory, emphasizes the complexity, uncertainty, and the contested normative dimensions of policy analysis. Yet a central evaluative question still arises concerning the capacity of governance networks to facilitate “coordination.” The classic contributions of Charles Lindblom, although pre-dating the contemporary governance literature, can enable further elaboration of and engagement with this question. Lindblom’s conceptualization of coordination challenges in the face of complexity shares with post-positivism a recognition of the inevitably contested nature of policy goals. Yet Lindblom suggests a closer focus on the complex, dynamically evolving, broadly “economic” choices and trade-offs involved in defining and delivery policy for enabling these goals to be achieved and the significant epistemological challenges that they raise for policy makers. This focus can complement and enrich both post-positivist scholarship and the process and incentives-orientated approaches that predominate in contemporary political science research on coordination in governance. This is briefly illustrated through a short case study evaluating governance for steering markets toward delivering low- and zero-carbon homes in England

Conceptualization · Corporate governance · Economics · Epistemology · Incentive · Management · Normative · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Positivism · Process (computing · Scholarship · Sociology · Computer Science · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Public Policy and Administration Research · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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