ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a framework for the wide variety of governance processes and the roles and responsibilities of the actors involved in them. It does so through the discussion of three prototype models of governance: the coordinative model, the competitive model and the argumentative model. The chapter underlines the need to rethink 'the nature of policy processes', and in particular processes that are moving away from the coordinative or 'command and control' models of governance. It features a typical example from the Netherlands, based on the development of the Waterland regional plan. The chapter shows how the Province of Noord-Holland used its formal authority to control policy development. The process of coordination and consultation was restricted to the relevant departments within the Province and to affected local governments. The actor-consulting model, which is at the core of this chapter, offers a means to cope with fuzzy modes of governance.
