Promoting good governance, disguising governance failure: reflections on policy paradigms and policy narratives in the field of governance

Abstract

After exploring some of the problems involved in the excessively fuzzy concept of governance, this paper offers a working definition of governance and distinguishes governance from other ways of co-ordinating social practices in situations marked by complex reciprocal interdependence. It then explains the increasing interest in governance in terms of the growing complexity of social life and the search for mechanisms to cope with this complexity. However, the same complexity that generates the demand for new governance mechanisms also contributes to their tendential failure to achieve what is expected of them, resulting in a repeated pattern of failed attempts to resolve problems through promoting first one, then another form of governance. These governance cycles prompt attempts to modulate
the forms and functions of governance. These attempts are discussed under the general heading of ‘metagovernance’ and the paper argues that these also tend to fail. In this context three alternative responses to these cycles of failure are identified and some self-reflexive governance mechanisms are proposed that may enable governance to enhance democratic and accountable decision-making. The paper ends by affirming the importance of good governance as a theoretical paradigm whilst noting that the policy paradigm of good governance may disguise governance failure.