Governance
Wyn Grant
Department of Politics and
International Studies
University of Warwick
What is governance

Lessons from the ESRC Whitehall
programme
What it isn’t
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Not the classic Whitehall model
with a strong executive running a
unitary state
Not New Public Management with
emphasis on a search for
efficiency through contracts and
markets
What it is


Governance emphasises selforganising, inter-organisational
networks
Interdependence. Broader than
government brings in non-state
actors as traditional boundaries
between public and private (state
and market) blur
What happens?


Network members interact
continually to exchange resources
and negotiate shared purposes
An example in the food chain
would be high quality, value added
food products
Where is the state?


Autonomy from the state, but it can
indirectly steer networks
Whether shift from direct to indirect
controls reduces or enhances state
power is contentious
Multi-level governance


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Dispersion of authority upwards to
EU and downwards to devolved
administration
Horizontal layering of power exists
alongside vertical connections
Vertical connections by definition
important in food chain
Ownership



Old models of accountability no
longer work
Many decisions are shared
between different competences,
e.g., food safety
Difficult for citizen to know who is
responsible
Adequacy of new
models


How adequate are private models
of governance?
For example, retailers as
surrogates for consumers in food
chain
Policy complexity

EU follows German model of
federalism, complex distrbution of
responsibilities, e.g., pesticides
Regulatory state model



Wolfe - effort to make state power
more efficient. Markets operate as
self-organising media of indirect
control
Majone - EU as regulatory state,
lacks fiscal policy instruments
Moran - displaces command state
and self-regulation leading to
efficiency gains
New politics



A politics of collective consumption
replaces a politics of production
Shift produces tensions in polity,
e.g., loss of trust in traditional
institutions, increasing resort to
direct action
Effective governance in food chain
needed
Introduction
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State the purpose of the discussion
Identify yourself
Topics of Discussion

State the main ideas you’ll be
talking about
Topic One
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Details about this topic
Supporting information and
examples
How it relates to your audience
Topic Two
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Details about this topic
Supporting information and
examples
How it relates to your audience
Topic Three
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Details about this topic
Supporting information and
examples
How it relates to your audience
Real Life
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Give an example or real life
anecdote
Sympathize with the audience’s
situation if appropriate
What This Means
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Add a strong statement that
summarizes how you feel or think
about this topic
Summarize key points you want
your audience to remember
Next Steps
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Summarize any actions required of
your audience
Summarize any follow up action
items required of you