ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION The past several decades have been characterized by sharp movements away from what had been conventional models of governing in most industrialized democracies. In particular, these governments have been implementing a shift away from hierarchical, Weberian styles of governing in favor of several alternate conceptions of what constitutes more appropriate styles of governing for the "modem" era. These changes represent both the "pull" of several new ideologies about governing and the "push" factor resulting from skepticism about the effectiveness of the top-down styles of governing characteristic of the previous decades. The emerging conception is that government can perform better with more open and entrepreneurial organizations than it will with the familiar bureaucratic style. (See Peters, 2001.)
The change in thinking about governance also involves change in the relationship between the public sector and organizations in the private sector. In the emerging conception of the role of the public sector, governments remain a central, if not the central, actor in providing governance. Governments are, however, no longer committed to being both the maker and implementer of all polices, but
Expressed in other terms, both scholars and practical public managers have been shifting their attention from government per se in favor of a greater concern with governance as a more inclusive process of steering society and economy (Pierre and Peters, 2000a; 2000b). In this emerging conception of the role of the public sector those public institutions continue to bear the primary responsibility for steering the economy and society. Government may, however, be able to discharge that fundamental responsibility through means other than the direct imposition of authority, or use other instruments requiring direct government involvement in the social processes being influenced. In the governance conception steering is assumed to be achieved through involving networks of social and economic actors rather than depending entirely upon government organizations themselves. Governance is, in the words of prominent Dutch scholars (see Kickert, 1997), ' 'steering at a distance.'' This style of steering is more palatable politically in an era in which there is significant public resistance to the state and its more intrusive forms in intervention.
