Comparative Governance

"Decision-making is at the heart of governing and governance, and is a more challenging task compared to just a few decades ago as a result of increasing social complexity and globalization. In this book, B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre propose a new framework for the comparative analysis of governance, arguing that government remains a central actor in governance. By articulating the functionalist dimension of governance they show how goal setting, resource mobilization, decision-making, implementation and feedback can be performed by a combination of different types of actors. Even so, effective governance requires a leading role for government. The framework is also applied to a taxonomy of governance arrangements and national styles of governing. Comparative Governance advances our knowledge about governance failure and how forms of governance may change. It also significantly strengthens the theory of governance, showing how governance can be studied conceptually as well as empirically"-- "Governance is about governing, and governing is predominantly about making decisions. This might appear to be a truism but we assert that much of the governance literature in general, and the development of governance theory in particular, has lost perspective on what constitutes the core issue of democratic governance; governing. Equally important, governing frequently means making and enforcing unpopular decisions which require a solid institutional framework and a regulated process. Again, decision making is at the heart of governing and governance. It is generally acknowledged that governing contemporary society is a more challenging task compared to just a few decades ago as a result of increasing social complexity and globalization. Governments around the world address this complexity by engaging societal partners in the process of governing but this strategy has entailed complex contingencies related to the organization and management of collaborative forms of governance. Most academic observers of governance have interpreted these developments as proof of a "shift" in the locus of political power from government to networks and other forms of exchange between state and society. In an effort to produce new analytical models to study the collaborative dimension of governance most political scientists seem to ignore the fundamental circumstance that the state remains very much at the centre of governance"--