The Two Futures of Governing: Decentering and Recentering Processes in Governing

Abstract

Reforms of the public sector have helped create a more effi cient and eff ective public sector, but they have also created a number of problems. Both the New Public Management and "governance" reforms have contributed to the contemporary problems in governing. Th ese problems have been political to a great extent, refl ecting the tendency to emphasize administrative rather than democratic values. Governments have begun to react to the real and perceived problems within the public sector by developing a number of "meat-governance" instruments that can help steer public organizations but which involve less direct command and control. Th is paper addresses the contemporary governance tasks of restoring political direction and policy coherence while at the same time supporting the autonomy of public organizations, and the involvement of policy networks, in governing.