ABSTRACT
Over the past fifteen years vogue words and phrases for reforming the public sector have come and gone. 'Rayner's Raiders’ and the '3Es’ of economy, efficiency and effectiveness gave way to the knew public management7 and ‘entrepreneurial government'. This paper focuses on one of these words governance. It is widely used, supplanting the commonplace 'government’, but does it have a distinct meaning? What is it supposed to tell us about the challenges facing British government?
