Situating Governance Context, Content, Critique [Paperback]

Governance studies present the Regulatory State or the Networked Polity as superior functional solutions to the welfarist forms of government established after the Second World War.Governance studies present the Regulatory State or the Networked Polity as superior functional solutions to the welfarist forms of government established after the Second World War. Recalling the criticisms advanced by a rising second generation of research, Palumbo warns instead about the growing accountability gap and democratic deficit caused by the development of governance regimes at local, national and transnational level. In hollowing out traditional liberal democratic institutions, new modes of governance are ushering in a post-democratic policy environment that is reinforcing the legitimacy crisis affecting representative institutions worldwide. By contrast with other critical accounts since the 2008 financial crisis, this book shows that the current post-democratic drift is due neither to the hegemonic power acquired by neoliberal ideas nor to the pressures exercised by impersonal systemic forces. As result, it puts forward a political reading of change that casts a new light on both state activism and restructuring.ContentsTable of Figures ixAcknowledgements xiIntroduction xiiiPART I: CONTEXTChapter One  Les Trente Glorieuses: The PostWar Settlementand the Birth of the Welfare State 3Chapter Two  Les Trente Furieuses: The Neoliberal Counter-Revolutionand the Politics of Depoliticisation 35Chapter Three  From Government to Governance: Change,Rationalisation, Ideal Types 67PART II: CONTENTChapter Four  Interpreting Political Change: Governance as a ResearchProgramme 101Chapter Five  Governing by the Market: The Political Economy of theRegulatory State 125Chapter Six  Bringing Society Back In: The Political Sociology of theNetworked Polity 155PART III: CRITIQUEChapter Seven  State, Globalisation and Governance: Rhetoric,Contradictions, Paradoxes 199Chapter Eight  Beyolƒf