ABSTRACT
Central governments in various European countries are shifting problem-solving capacity towards other layers of government or towards the private sector. The emerging mode of governance is a hierarchical system of governance at a distance in which transparency of output and outcomes and accountability are important guiding principles. Multi-level governance refers to the cooperation between several layers of government: local, regional, national, and supranational. In relation to governance at a distance, we see that deregulation and decentralization strengthen the discretion of public organizations to make binding decisions, presumably leading to more efficient and effective results. However, the rise of governance practices that are oriented on improving the output legitimacy of public administration by introducing a consumer democracy may lead to one-sidedness in the evaluation of public administration. Network governance is steering focused on facilitating a shared understanding among the stakeholders of a policy network.
