ABSTRACT
The liberal idea of governing as the legitimate use of power to allocate resources in pursuit of political objectives has evolved with nuances throughout European nation-states’ histories. Governing was conceived as emanating from the people’s sovereignty, from individual freedom, from the separation of powers; in sum, from the social contract and, therefore, from rational consent – to use John Locke’s expression. In parallel with the rationalization of the power of states to steer national societies politically, the concept of governance has developed in the sense of technical procedures to conduct, supervise and control the implementation of policies. The development of the separation between governing and governance had important impacts on policy-making. State officials and professional bureaucrats emerged as state apparatus managers, and the writing and development of policies became increasingly the focus and the “job” of these professionals (Peters, 2001: 10). As a result the conceptualization of policies was increasingly separated from policy implementation as a field of professional expertise under the prevalence of the former over the latter.
