Local Governance Implementation

Abstract

Regardless of the increasing complexity of societal problems, politics is still implemented through various sets of logics of democracy and governance arrangements that include elements of local self-government. Problems of societal complexity, not the least in Europe, thus increasingly call for the need of governance solutions that involve local self-government institutions. At the same time, advocates of New Public Management (NPM) continue to argue that the delivery of local self-government services should be based on the logic of competition, market solutions, and the evaluation of efficiency by targets and performance indicators. In reaction to this development, it has been argued the complexities that arise from these practices demand a shift from the NPM paradigm, to New Public Governance. In practice, this means that vertical models of governance include multi-level solutions, sometimes involving every level of government from the EU-level, down to the level of the neighborhood council. Horizontal models typically deal with issues ranging from enhancing local economy, to the improvement of implementing social work and care. For example, local governments try to generate new firm formation and entrepreneurship through university-industry cooperation on innovation; complex social work issues are addressed by local self-government through civic organizations and private-public service providers. Hybrid models often include both vertical and horizontal elements of governance, combining logics of competition, cooperation and law. However, governance theories are still quite descriptive and analytical, rather than empirical and prescriptive. Recent theoretical contributions, for example, describe governance through conceptualizations such as “network governance,” “collaboration governance,” and “multi-level governance.” But the evidence from research on how these analytical models work, continues to be scarce. Therefore, in this panel we particularly welcome studies on the implementation of governance that involve local self-government institutions: what makes local governance implementation work, and how and why is that the case?

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