GOV: 640 THEORIES OF GOVERNANCE LECTURE: DR EMILY OKUTO CONTACT: 0721766802 emilyaokuto@yahoo.com Course Description: What is governance? How should we explain its emergence? What are its implications for public policy and democracy? In line with a pluralistic understanding of governance, this course applies a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to the study of governance. The course departs from the shift from government to governance in the creation of public policy. This course focuses on those theories in the social sciences that arose and prospered in the twentieth century, transforming our understanding of society and politics. Many of these theories challenged the older idea of the state as a natural and unified expression of a nation based on common ethnic, cultural, and linguistic ties and possessing a common good. Many of them made people more aware of the role of pressure groups, self- interest, and social networks in the policy process. Later, toward the end of the twentieth century, some of these theories then inspired attempts to reform the public sector and develop new policy instruments. Certainly, the new public management owed a debt to rational choice and especially principalagent theory, while joined-up governance drew on developments in organizational and institutional theory. There is an ongoing development from state-centered and hierarchical steering systems towards new forms of governance systems, in which a multitude of public and private actors, on different levels, participate. This trend is described and analyzed. A central part of the course deals with how values like democracy, effectiveness and legitimacy are sustained, and accounted for, in these new systems of governance. It thus promotes an awareness of the way questions about contemporary governance are inextricably linked to theoretical approaches
After the course the learner should be able to: Describe the concept of governing and discuss different ways to conceptualize it in the public policy process Describe and categorize different connotations of governance and its applications in the fields of political science and public administration Describe and compare the characterizing features of different governance models, such as new public management, network governance, multi-level governance and collaborative management Provide examples of, and analyze, the shift from government to governance in the context of different countries discuss how different models of governance account for central values, e.g. democracy, effectiveness and legitimacy
Course Content PART ONE Week 1.Introduction/ Governance models Week 2. Theoretical perspectives . Policy network theory, Rational choice theory, social Interpretive theory, Week 3. Theoretical perspectives Argumentative theories, Systems theory of governance, Cultural institutional theory, Week 4. Theoretical perspectives Democratic and legal theories, Gender theory in political science, Political economy theory, Organization Theory, Institutional Theory, Week 5. Theoretical perspectives Meta-Governance, State-Society Relations, Development Theory
PART TWO Week 6 -7 The changing practices of governance Public sector reforms have transformed practices of governance across diverse levels and in diverse territories. Partnerships- in Governance Multijurisdictional Regulation Local Governance- Non-Governmental Organizations Transgovernmental Network Global Governance Democratic governance
Week 8-9 Dilemmas of Governance Legitimacy, Collaborative Governance, Participation Leadership Network Management Social Inclusion Capacity-Building Decentralization Governing the Commons Regulation in Governance Sustainable Development
Week 10 New Governance Towards policy reforms
REFERENCES Anne Mette Kjaer(2004) Governance. Jon willey Wiley, MayBell, Stephen, 2002. Economic Governance and Institutional Dynamics, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. Bevir, Mark (2013). Governance: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Braithwaite, John, Cary Coglianese, and David LeviFaur. "Can regulation and governance make a difference?." Regulation & Governance 1.1 (2007): 1- Chhotray, Vasudha and Gerry Stoker (2009) Governance Theory and Practice. a cross- disciplinary approach - Michael Moran publishers Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, UK Empter, Stefan; Janning, Josef (2009). "Sustainable Governance Indicators 2009 - An Introduction". In Stiftung, Bertelsmann. Policy Performance and Executive Capacity in the OECD. Gtersloh: Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung. Evans, J. Environmental Governance. Routledge 2012. p40. Grindle, Merilee S. (2004) Good Enough Governance: Poverty Reduction and Reform in Developing CountriesGovernance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions. Vol. 17:525-548 http://portals.wi.wur.nl/files/docs/File/MSDGhanaGuyana/Grindlegoodenoughgovernance20 04.00256.pdf Earle, Lucy and Zo Scott (2010) Assessing the Evidence of the Impact of Governance on Development Outcomes and Poverty Reduction, Issues Paper, GSDRC Research Service http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/EIRS9.pd James N. Rosenau, "Toward an Ontology for Global Governance", in Martin Hewson and Thomas Sinclair, eds., Approaches to Global Governance Theory, SUNY Press, Albany, 1999. Smallwood, Deb (March 2009). "IT Governance: A Simple Model". Tech Decision CIO Insights. Sorensen, E. Metagovernance: The Changing Role of Politicians in Processes of Democratic Governance. American Review of Public Administration. Volume 36 2006, pp 98-114 (p 103). Kooiman, J. (2003) Governing as Governance. Sage publications . World Bank, Managing Development - The Governance Dimension, 1991, Washington D.C.,
"World Governance Index 2009 Report". World Governance. Retrieved 3 February 2013.