Situating Governance Context Content Critique Antonino Palumbo by Antonino Palumbo 9781907301681, 1907301682 instant download after payment.

Globalization and the development of new modes of governance have deeply transformed the institutions of the welfare state built in the post second war period and set the ground for a distinct body politic and style of government. According to the narratives developed in governance studies, the post-war welfare state is in the process of being superseded by a polity where authority is progressively devolved to task-specific institutions with unlimited jurisdictions and intersecting memberships operating at sub- and sovra-national levels. For this polity, the goal of government is not that of homogenizing the political and social space enclosed within clear-cut and permanent national boundaries, but that of enabling individuals and local communities to operate autonomously in an increasing open world, thus promoting sustainable forms of development. The aim of the book is twofold. First, it aims at supplying better analytical tools for conceptualising and understanding recent social and political change. Second, it aims at explicating the relevance that the change analysed by governance theorists has for traditional themes in political theory related to state authority, democratic legitimacy and political accountability. The book is divided in three main parts composed of three chapters each having as their main aim the clarification of respectively: (i) the context in which change has taken place; (ii) the nature of the policy innovations brought about by this change; (iii) the side-effects produced by the dynamic of change. An introductory chapter setting the arguments of the book, and a concluding chapter summarising its findings and suggesting some alternative courses of action complete the volume.