The governance of public affairs

Bibliographic Data

ID12705481
AuthorsStephen Bell (0000-0003-2877-9231, The University of Queensland, corresponding author), Andrew Hindmoor (0000-0002-0335-2509, The University of Queensland)
Year2009
Volume9
Issue2
Pages149-159
Publication date2009-03-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Public Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-3891 • E-ISSN: 1479-1854
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/pa.306
OpenAlexW2068418185
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited38

Government and governance are frequently treated as synonyms. Governing is what governments do in formulating and implementing policies. A burgeoning political science literature uses the term governance in a different way to describe the growing tendency of governments to govern in partnership with a range of non‐state actors and, as a purported consequence, the marginalization of governments within policy‐making processes. Here, some writers go so far as to talk about ‘governance without government’. In a forthcoming book, Rethinking Governance: Bringing the State Back In, Stephen Bell and I argue that this dominant ‘society‐centred’ perspective on governance is flawed. In our view whilst governments are indeed now more likely to forge relationships with a larger range of non‐state actors, they nevertheless remain the central players in governance arrangements. Indeed we argue that governments have been strengthened through the relationships they have developed. This article reviews some of the extant literature on governance and specifies the basic terms of our ‘state‐centric relational’ approach. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Corporate governance · Economics · Extant taxon · General partnership · Government (linguistics · Law and economics · Management · Multi-level governance · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Project governance · Public policy · Sociology · State (computer science · Law · Policy Transfer and Learning · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research

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