GOVERNMENT VERSUS GOVERNANCE
Thinking about the state and policy capacity has continued to evolve. One development has been the emergence of the notion of ‘governance’ over ‘government.’ Unlike government, governance extends beyond the simple workings of the machinery of the state. What government once did alone is now seen as being performed by a wide range of public, private, non–profit, and national and/or international bodies (Hirst and Thompson 1996, 184). Some have even suggested that we are witnessing a change in the state’s role from that of policy researcher to that of policy manager. This also suggests that policy, in the current period, is being done much less from closed, vertical, policy silos and more within an open, horizontal policy process.
While we must take, with some caution, the argument that we have moved from a model of ‘governing from the centre’ (Savoie 1999) to a notion of ‘shared governance’ (Pierre 2000), it has some relevance. This has been a transformation promoted by so-called Third-Way advocates and politicians (a post-neoliberal political development) – a trend more advanced in Europe than in North America. As Phillips has argued:
shared governance entails collaboration among a wide range of actors from the public, private and voluntary sectors, and a transformation of the state’s role from one of exercising direct control and operating through hierarchies to one of working through networks (Phillips 2006, 3).
Such an approach embraces a more inclusive and collaborative model. This also suggests greater involvement of parties beyond the state in the policy-setting and policy making processes. The role of knowledge mobilization and knowledge transfer for policy effect would appear, under this model, to have a more central place in policymaking.
Shields, John. 2007. “Mobilizing Immigration Research for Policy Effect: The Case of CERIS.”
CERIS Working Paper Series. No. 58. June 2007
Hirst, Paul and Thompson, Graham. 1996. Globalization in Question: The International
Economy and the Possibilities of Governance. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Phillips, Susan D. 2006. “The Intersection of Governance and Citizenship in Canada: Not
Quite the Third Way.” IRPP Policy Matters. 7 (4).
Pierre, Jon. 2000. Debating Governance: Authority, Steering, and Democracy. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Savoie, Donald. 1999. Governing from the Centre: The Concentration of Power in Canadian
Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.