From government to governance

Abstract

In the 1970s, a certain shift from a hierarchical to a more co-operative form of government has been observed by political scientists, first in western European countries, that is countries that used to have strong, interventionist states. Disappointment with the state as an effective political steering centre of society gave rise to the search for alternative modes of guiding socioeconomic development. One of these alternatives was deregulation and privatisation, the turn from the state to the market. The co-operation of state and civil society in public policy-making takes place in different forms. Most attention has been given to the direct collaboration of public authorities and private corporate actors in policy development. In Western Europe, the crucial experience that triggered the movement from a more interventionist state and hierarchical control to more co-operative forms of governance was the failure of ambitious reform policies that had been pursued after the end of the Second World War and the immediate post-war reconstruction period.

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