Local Governance: Paradigms, Theories and Implications
地方治理研究:范式、理论与启示

The emergence of governance theory from the early 1990s onwards has been one of the core developments in public administration.Governance theory starts by recognizing that public administration's brief stretches beyond multiple government institutions to those drawn from the community,voluntary and private sectors.The governance perspective offers an alternative organizing framework to that of traditional public administration.Complex tasks of co-operation do not necessarily require the imposition of a hierarchical chain of command in an integrated organization.There are other options: regulation at arm's length,contracting through the market,responding to interest articulation and developing bonds of loyalty or trust.We examine in turn work on the management of networks as key to governance;second,on perspectives that focus more on the dynamic of delegation and the creation of appropriate incentive regimes to steer governance;third,we examine social interpretative theories that look how interests are articulated,communicated and conditioned by a governance discourse and how identities and trust might be built.And also we discuss the concept of regime analysis and social capital.As academic focused on public administration I argue that suggests the governance perspective tells me three things that those charged with governing need to think about.First the need to ensure that there is sufficient scope for a local decision-making.Second they need to consider whether their managers and officials have the appropriate skill set for governance.Third they need to be prepared to learn from elsewhere and to that that have a way of understanding local governance in a comparative context.