Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

governance network theory: towards a second generation

  • Research
  • Published:
European Political Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Governance networks have gained increasing prominence in the wake of the many reports of government and market failure. Drawing on the burgeoning literature, we first define governance networks and then briefly assess their merits and problems. The key claim is that we are now seeing the development of a second generation of governance network research that focuses on new and yet unanswered questions about the prospects of network-based coordination across different levels of governance: the meta-governance of self-regulating networks; the role of discourse in relation to governance networks, and the democratic problems and potentials of network governance. In answering these important questions we can draw on different theoretical approaches to network governance, and these are briefly delineated.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society, Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean, M. (1999) Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society, London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1991) ‘Governmentality’, in G. Burchell, C. Gordon and P. Miller (eds.) The Foucault Effect, Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 87–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jessop, B. (1998) ‘The rise of governance and the risk of failure: the case of economic development’, International Social Science Journal 5(155): 29–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jessop, B. (1999) ‘Governance failure' unpublished paper, Department of Social Sciences’, Roskilde University.

  • Jessop, B. (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State, Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kersbergen, K. van and Waarden, F. van (2004) ‘“Governance” as a bridge between disciplines: cross-disciplinary inspiration regarding shifts in governance and problems of governability accountability and legitimacy’, European Journal of Political Research 43, 143–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kickert, W.J.M., Klijn, E.H. and Koppenjan, J.F.M. (1997) Managing Complex Networks: Strategies for the Public Sector, London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klijn, E.H. and Koppenjan, J.F.M. (2000) ‘Interactive Decision Making and Representative Democracy: Institutional Collisions and Solutions’, in O.V. Heffen, W.J.M. Kickert and J.A. Thomassen (eds.) Governance in Modern Society. Effects, Change and Formation of Government Institutions, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 109–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klijn, E.H. and Koppenjan, J.F.M. (2004) Managing Uncertainties in Networks, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler-Koch, B. and Eising, R. (1999) The Transformation of Governance in the European Union, London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Koppenjan, J. and Klijn, E.H. (2004) Managing Uncertainties in Networks: A Network Approach to Problem-solving and Decision-making, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kooiman, J. (1993) Modern Governance: New Government-Society Interactions, London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kooiman, J. (2000) ‘Societal Governance: Levels, Models and Orders of Social-Political Interaction’, in J. Pierre (ed.) Debating Governance: Authority Steering and Democracy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 138–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, J.G. and Olsen, J.P. (1995) Democratic Governance, New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marin, B. and Mayntz, R. (1991) Policy Networks: Empirical Evidence and Theoretical Considerations, Frankfurt-am-Main: Campus Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marsh, D. (1998) ‘The Utility and Future of Policy Network Analysis’, in D. Marsh (ed.) Comparing Policy Networks, Buckingham: Open University Press, pp. 185–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayntz, R. (1991) ‘Modernization and the logic of interorganizational networks’, Discussion Paper 91/8, Cologne: Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung.

  • Mayntz, R. (1999) New Challenges to Governance Theory, Cologne: Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milward, H.B. and Provan, K. (2000) ‘How Networks are Governed’, in C.J. Heinrich and L.E. Lynn (eds.) Governance and Performance: New Perspectives, Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, pp. 238–262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, K. and Pedersen, O.K. (1988) ‘The negotiated economy: ideal and history’, Scandinavian Political Studies 11(2): 79–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierre, J. (2000) Debating Governance. Authority Steering, and Democracy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierre, J. and Peters, G. (2000) Governance Politics and the State, New York: St. Martins Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, W.W. and DiMaggio, J. (1983) ‘The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields’, American Sociological Review 4(2): 147–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, W.W. and DiMaggio, J. (1991) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, R.A.W. (1996) ‘The new governance: governing without government’, Political Studies Association 44(4): 652–657.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, R.A.W. (1997a) Understanding Governance. Policy Networks, Governance, Reflexivity and Accountability, Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, R.A.W. (1997b) ‘Foreword’, in W.J.M. Kickert, E.H Klijn and J.F.M. Koppenjan (eds.) Managing Complex Networks: Strategies for the Public Sector, London: Sage, pp. xi–xv.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1996) ‘Governing ‘Advanced’ Liberal Democracies’, in A. Barry, T. Osborne and N. Rose (eds.) Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism Neo-liberalism and Rationalities of Government, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 37–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1999) Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. and Miller, P. (1992) ‘Political power beyond the state: problematics of government’, British Journal of Sociology 43(2): 172–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scharpf, F.W. (1993) Games in Hierarchies and Networks: Analytical and Empirical Approaches to the Study of Governance Institutions, Frankfurt-am-Main: Campus-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scharpf, F.W. (1994) ‘Games real actors could play: positive and negative coordination in embedded negotiations’, Journal of Theoretical Politics 6(1): 27–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scharpf, F.W. (1997) Games Real Actors Play: Actor Centered Institutionalism in Policy Research, Oxford: West View Point.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scharpf, F.W. (1999) Governing in Europe – Effective and Democratic?, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, R.W. (1995) Institutions and Organizations, London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sørensen, E. and Torfing, J. (2003) ‘Network politics, political capital, and democracy’, International Journal of Public Administration 2(6): 609–634.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Bank (1992) Governance and Development, Washington, DC: World Bank.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, Roskilde University, Building 25.2, PO Box 260, Roskilde, DK-4000, Denmark

    Jacob Torfing

Authors
  1. Jacob Torfing
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Torfing, J. governance network theory: towards a second generation. Eur Polit Sci 4, 305–315 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.eps.2210031

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.eps.2210031

Keywords

Search

Navigation