Governance in modern society. Effects, change and formation of government institutions

Book abstract:

Globalisation, European integration, economic, technological and societal developments are all exerting a major influence on government institutions and public policies. Since 1995, the Netherlands Institute of Government (NIG), in which seven universities participate, decided to formulate a research program to study these developments in relation to the dynamics of government institutions. Most contributions to this book have their origin in conferences organised by NIG or published as an NIG working paper. In accordance with the design of the NIG research program, this book addresses questions about multi-level and multi-actor governance in relation to the effects, the change and the formation of government institutions.

The first part of the book deals with the effects of government institutions using empirical and theoretical approaches. The second part goes into the change of government institutions mainly from an empirical point of view and the third part studies the formation of government institutions from an empirical and normative perspective. In particular the following topics are discussed: the European Union as a system of multi-level governance, national government institutions and policies, change of government institutions and changing state-society relations, new public management reforms, ICT and changing organisational boundaries, political institutions and policy-oriented learning, management of public-private partnerships, interactive policy making, and structural legal institutions.

This volume will be of particular interest to administrators, researchers, policy makers and students in the field of public administration and public policy.