ABSTRACT
Since the 1970s, scholars of political science have been aware that political steering attempts that do not take the problem-solving capacities of the addressees into account are likely to fail because of knowledge deficits. Policy problems, particularly in the area of environmental politics, are too complex and top-down approaches are unable to take into account all relevant aspects as well as the possible side-effects of measures (see Mayntz 1987). Also policy makers have become aware of their limited capacity for successful hierarchical steering. They face a decline in internal steering capacity as well as external autonomy. Internally, governments increasingly depend on society’s problem-solving capacities, which leads to a loss in hierarchical forms of control by the state. Externally, transnational interdependencies and global problems, like climate change, undermine national governments’ ability to autonomously govern their societies and cause them to transfer powers to governing levels, beyond the state (Scharpf 1992).
