ABSTRACT
Hierarchical, network and market governance represent different operational characteristics on more than 50 features of governance. The three governance styles usually appear in mixed forms with one style dominating, but even when one style seems to be absent it still may have an impact from somewhere in the background. This chapter introduces a toolbox consisting of 50 ‘shades of governance’, each having three ‘operational forms’ according to the three basic governance styles – hierarchical, network and market governance. Understanding the 50 features is important because they can undermine each other; it is impossible to maximize stability (hierarchy) and flexibility (market) at the same time, or diplomacy (network) and competition (market). The toolbox clusters the 50 features in four groups: (1) vision, strategy and orientation; (2) institutions, instruments and tools; (3) processes, people and partnerships; and (4) problems, solutions and linkages. Together they constitute the ‘metagovernance toolbox’, which enables metagovernance to use, reject, combine and replace or switch parts of specific governance frameworks, taking into account conflicts and indicators of governance failure.
