ABSTRACT

This is a book about public governance and national leaders’ attempts to deal with the economic, environmental, social, and political issues of their countries. Public governance might be generally defined as the use of government action and power, although narrower definitions can be offered for specific purposes. This book is concerned with public governance defined as the work of societal maintenance and societal development by government, involving government decisions and actions deploying and committing economic and social resources. This definition was inspired by one proposed by the World Bank (1992) some time ago-arguably at the dawn of a post neo-liberal period in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.