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RHODES' CONTRIBUTION TO GOVERNANCE THEORY: PRAISE, CRITICISM AND THE FUTURE GOVERNANCE DEBATE
Author(s) -
KJÆR ANNE METTE
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01903.x
Subject(s) - corporate governance , praise , politics , criticism , context (archaeology) , project governance , multi level governance , political science , order (exchange) , positive economics , power (physics) , work (physics) , public administration , sociology , law and economics , political economy , economics , law , management , psychology , social psychology , finance , mechanical engineering , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , biology , engineering
This article discusses Rod Rhodes' contribution to governance theory. Rod Rhodes' work on governance has been much quoted. He has contributed to setting a new governance agenda and to an ongoing governance debate. This debate has also had an impact on political practice. However, as this paper argues, Rhodes' definition of governance is problematic in that it is narrowly identified with networks, and it is not consistently applied. Rhodes' concept of governance remains too narrow for it to be able to include a comparative analysis of a variation of governance forms. In addition, the governance concept needs to be equipped with tools from political economy in order be able to incorporate important aspects of interests, power and conflict. The way forward for governance theory would seem to involve the inclusion of political economy analysis of context as it affects beliefs and dilemmas.