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PublicStrategy Research and Advice
Brussels, Belgium Dr. Louis Meuleman This website is under Construction
Last update: 13 June 2010 |
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Abstract What is modern governance? Is it the battle against ‘old fashioned’ hierarchy, or is it the restoration of key hierarchical values? Is it optimizing network management, or maximizing the benefits of market thinking in the public sector? This book argues that it is the combination of all this. The next question is: In practice, how do successful public managers design and manage combinations of hierarchical, network and market governance? In other words: what is their rationale to apply metagovernance? Five case-studies show that metagovernance is a public management requisite: it amplifies the variation of actions public managers can take, and it prevents the three ideal-typical governance styles from undermining each other. Similar cases of strategic environmental policy-making in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and the European Commission and one case of community policing in the Netherlands illustrate that successful public-sector managers are dealing with similar metagovernance challenges in different socio-politico-administrative cultures.
From a review in Acta Politica (2009) 44, 463–466. doi:10.1057/ap.2009.12: “(...) metagovernance is as an important perspective that needs reading, discussion and reflection. Certainly, this book is a very useful contribution to this need, for scholars as well as practitioners.” …. “In the introduction, Meuleman formulates the central research question: ‘Under which conditions may (internal) metagovernance of governance style mixtures be applied by public managers as metagovernors? What is their logic of action, their rationale’? (p. 5). To empirically study this question, the author first outlines the vast body of literature on governance, resulting in a research framework for analyzing metagovernance. This part of the book is an ambitious feat of synthesis, encompassing clearly structured theoretical strands and providing up-to-date insights.”
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Public Management and the Metagovernance of Hierarchies, Networks and Markets
Louis Meuleman
This dissertation was published in April 2008 by Springer, Heidelberg |
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Press release Erasmus University Rotterdam:
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The Pegasus Principle: Reinventing a credible public sector (Louis Meuleman, 2003, Utrecht: Lemma) will soon be downloadable for free on Google Books.
In many countries the public sector is experiencing a crisis around its credibility. Scandals and reports of large-scale fraud have damaged the public sector's reputation with citizens and other stakeholders. This book is an 'inside story' about restoring the public trust as well as a guide to improving the complex management processes found in the public sector. Based on his experiences in the public sector in the Netherlands, the author describes the important role process managers have in helping to transform public sector organisations into credible and productive partners in society. He introduces the 'Pegasus Principle', a concept in which a 'transactive process approach' is used to balance the external multiple-actor environment with the internal environment of a (public sector) organisation. It is this balance between interactivity and intraactivity that is the key to successful process management. |
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IASS scientists offer recommendations to government and science November 29, 2011. The Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam, presents the summary report at the closure of TransGov, its first collaborative project today. The authors examine dynamic questions of how – with an attuned understanding of complex societal mechanisms – better governance systems can be designed and implemented for sustainability reform, in which non-state organizations and civil society are more involved in decision-making. They argue that the existing governance approaches to social transformation processes, such as the energy transition, are not suitable. The English report by Prof. Roeland in’t Veld is available in print and as free download here. A German translation will be available shortly. Transgovernance: The Quest for Governance of Sustainable Development, sets forth the findings of the TransGov project that began in Summer, 2010 and closed in Fall, 2011. The report takes up questions of steering, advancing, administering, and bringing about sustainable developments world-wide. It combines three notions for understanding contemporary societies in their transitions towards sustainability: reflexivity, knowledge democracy and second modernity. These form the basis for the tangible recommendations that the authors offer in ten areas. Louis Meuleman, TransGov project director, identifies local and sub-national authorities, business and civil society as the key agents of change: "Mainstream sustainability governance uses old recipes, although we know they do not work. TransGov is a wake-up call for governmental and science organizations to step out of their comfort zone and develop sustainability by building on cultural diversity, compatibility, and reflexivity. Transgovernance combines all this in a much-needed approach beyond conventional thinking." The IASS publishes Transgovernance: The Quest for Governance of Sustainable Development as the first in a series of institute reports presenting the results of trans-disciplinary projects examining sustainability development. The series brings state-of-the-art research to political decision-makers, NGOs, natural and social scientists, practitioners and journalists. The report is availabe for download in PDF form. Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the IASS, opened the book launch event at the GIZ House in Berlin on November 29th. Prof. Roeland in ’t Veld and Dr. Louis Meuleman presented the TransGov project report, and Dr. Volker Hauff, former federal research minister, responded. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Guenther Bachmann, secretary-general of the German Sustainability Council. |
IASS publishes first project results: Transgovernance: The Quest for Governance of Sustainable Development. |