Introduction Governance Network Research: Towards a Second Generation

Abstract

The structures and processes of public policy-making and societal governance are rapidly changing. The many reports about the failure of national and local governments to solve concrete policy problems and exploit new opportunities through hierarchical command and control have triggered an increasing use of market regulation in the provision of public goods and services. Hence, privatization of public enterprises, construction of quasi-markets, contracting out of public services, competitive deregulation and commercialization of the remaining public sector in accordance with the principles of the New Public Management doctrine have been in fashion since the early 1980s. The limits to the neo-liberal quest for ‘less state, more market’ not only include the standard problems of imperfect competition, unstable and insufficient market supply, unchecked externalities and growing inequality. The marketization strategy also fails to reduce the need for state regulation which seems to grow rather than diminish in the face of increased marketization. Last but not least, it fails to facilitate collectively oriented and pro-active governance on the basis of joint objectives and mutual trust. Despite of the many problems of the neo-liberal marketization strategy, political decision makers around the world continue to worship the market forces, mainly out of an ideological concern for the facilitation of free choice and the promotion of incentive-driven individual action.