Governance as Theory, Practice, and Dilemma

The word ‘governance’ is ubiquitous. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund make loans conditional on ‘good governance’. Climate change and avian flu appear as issues of ‘global governance’. The European Union issues a White Paper on ‘Governance’. The US Forest Service calls for ‘collaborative governance’. What accounts for the pervasive use of the term ‘governance’ and to what does it refer? Current scholarship offers a bewildering set of answers. The word ‘governance’ appears in diverse academic disciplines including development studies, economics, geography, international relations, planning, political science, public administration, and sociology. Each discipline sometimes acts as if it owns the word and has no need to engage with the others. Too little attention is given to ways of making sense of the whole literature on governance. At the most general level, governance refers to theories and issues of social coordination and the nature of all patterns of rule. More specifically, governance refers to various new theories and practices of governing and the dilemmas to which they give rise. These new theories, practices, and dilemmas place less emphasis than did their predecessors on hierarchy and the state, and more on markets and networks. The new theories, practices, and dilemmas of governance are combined in concrete activity. The theories inspire people to act in ways that help give rise to new practices and dilemmas. The practices create dilemmas and encourage attempts to comprehend them in theoretical terms. The dilemmas require new theoretical reflection and practical activity if they are to be adequately addressed.