Governance: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Bevir Mark

Author:Bevir, Mark [Bevir, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-10-24T16:00:00+00:00

Network governance

Despite the drama of the new public management, its impact was anything but clear-cut. New market-related processes certainly did not straightforwardly replace old bureaucratic ones. On the contrary, hierarchic bureaucracies are still the dominant form of public governance. Sometimes the market reforms were just never implemented; they remained policy proposals or stated aims that had little impact on practice. Sometimes the market reforms were implemented but the manner of their implementation created new bureaucratic institutions and new sets of rules. Sometimes the reforms introduced new processes but these processes did not replace the old ones so much as duplicate them; the result was two largely separate systems performing much the same functions. Sometimes the implementation of the reforms had unintended consequences—or just did not lead to the hoped for gains in efficiency—so the state later returned to hierarchic processes in an attempt to increase its control over the new set-up.

Marketization resulted, therefore, in an increasingly complex world. Generally market-related policy instruments did not supplant hierarchic ones; they supplemented them. Generally contracting-out did not produce anything remotely like a free market; it resulted in a proliferation of service providers and networks. Generally the central state does not ignore the activities of these networks and third-party actors; it tries to control and coordinate them—to regulate and steer them—as best it can.

When social scientists talk of the new governance, they are evoking the complex world that has arisen in the wake of marketization and the new public management. State power and state action is now dispersed among a vast array of spatially and functionally distinct networks consisting of all kinds of public, voluntary, and private organizations, all of which the centre interacts with in an attempt to secure its policy goals.

The proliferation of networks was partly an unintended consequence of public sector reforms. In addition, however, many states have actively promoted networks in an attempt to overcome the deficiencies of both old bureaucratic structures and new market-related processes. Policy-makers have introduced a second wave of reforms to promote coordination and strategic oversight and to combat both bureaucratic departmentalism and the unintended consequences of marketization and managerialism. This second wave of reforms concentrates on forming partnerships, managing networks, and joining up governance.

Although the creation of public–private partnerships (PPPs) is nothing new, it has become far more common. The big growth in PPPs dates from the late 1980s. Indeed, PPPs are to some extent an alternative to earlier forms of marketization and contracting. PPPs consist of one or more public sector actor combining with one or more private or voluntary sector actor. Because the idea of a partnership is vague, PPPs can vary from loose alliances to more formal agreements to coproduce a policy or service. It is helpful, however, to maintain a contrast with other forms of contracting by restricting the meaning of PPP to cases in which the parties agree to joint decision-making and production.

PPPs bring public sector and other actors together to coproduce policies and services. This emphasis on coproduction explains some of the other characteristics of PPPs.

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