ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the trend toward network governance by focusing on its drivers and by elaborating on its main characteristics and its manifestations and differences among countries. Many authors have proclaimed a shift from government to governance. Worldwide, government, business and civil society in contemporary network society increasingly face complex societal problems. As a reaction to this challenge, governments throughout the world are turning to new forms of governance that have a more horizontal character and attempting to include other actors that have important resources necessary for solving social problems. The term governance network is used to describe public policy making, implementation and service delivery through a web of relationships among autonomous yet interdependent government, business and civil society actors. The literature on governance mentions two broad global trends, the trend toward individualization and the trend toward the network society, that are important for the relationship between state and society and the emergence of governance networks.
