Governance

Governance (from French gouverner, " Manage, guide, educate ," gubernare from Latin; synonymous Greek κυβερνάω / kybernáo: lead the rudder; cf. cybernetics ) - often translated as a government official or corporate governance - even Steering shape, popularly called the control and regulation system in the sense of structures ( structure and process organization ) a political and social unit such as government, administration, community, private or public organization. Often, it is also used in the sense of control or regulation of any one organization (such as a company or an enterprise ). The term governance is used frequently blurred.

Conceptual distinctions

For the next term from the French ( governance ), there is no German equivalent. Eindeutschungsversuche as " governance " have not (yet) enforced, the term steering shapes makes sense, since it both the reference to the structures as is also given to the intention. The term is - in the political environment - an alternative to the concept of Government ( Government ) emerged and to express that within the respective political and social unit control and regulation not only by the state ( " First sector " ), but also by the private sector ( "Second sector ") and the" third sector " ( clubs, associations, interest groups ) is perceived. Corporate governance refers to the control and management structure within, occasionally - with respect to legal regulations - even outside of private sector enterprises. Governance refers only to structures and institutional respectively procedural elements of a political or social unit, thus their management should be supported and improved.

However - in a purely empirical - the word governance used frequently or even usually not defined in any sense, but as fashionable alternative to Government ( Government ). In certain Begriffsverständnissen governance is even only be used if just not the state ( = government), but private stakeholders develop control effect. An integrative assessment involves all stakeholders, which - depending on the subject and situation - to a higher, must be given to other lower priority.

Accordingly, a distinction is made between a narrow and a broad term governance. The close-grip term stands in contrast to "Government" (government) and emphasizes the interaction of public and private side, while the broad term governance any kind of political system with the aim of " management of interdependencies " ( Benz) - of unilateral state control includes over cooperative forms of negotiation through to social self- control. Classically, the governance structure forms relate to hierarchy, communities, market and network, which occur in different forms and can be combined. Furthermore, all kinds of control systems, which determine the decision organization, referred to as governance mechanisms. In the context of the European integration process more governance structures have been developed which are carried in the research under " New Governance ".

Normative and descriptive approaches

Meanwhile governance can be described as research and field of action as very much branched. Thus, the trend seems to emerge that the concept is both popular and useful, although the use of terms not suggesting necessarily amount to an effective change. Two different political science perspectives open up at this point. Political scientist who choose an open, descriptive approach, leave open the question whether there is a qualitative transformation of the state. Such open approaches assume the following empirical observations:

In contrast, others go a political scientist from the basic assumption that it constitutes a fundamental transformation of the state: " The normative use of governance is based on the assumption that the increased use of new forms of control increases efficiency and effectiveness and general government act can be recovered. "

Principles of Governance

Fields of application

In recent years, various social subsystems and their changes were analyzed using the concept of governance, such as higher education. Under the title "Educational Governance ", the current transformations in the school system - especially since the PISA shock - investigated by means of governance concepts and discussed.

Recently, the "Council of Councils Initiative " was founded by a grant from the Robina Foundation, as part of their promotion of " International Institutions" and "global governance" programs of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR ).

Courses and research projects

To meet the scientific interest meet some universities offer research priorities and courses of study on this topic. Also meanwhile institutional research relationships have been established in this field, are examples of the Collaborative Research Centre 597 Transformations of the State and the DFG - Sonderforschungsbereich 700 Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood: New Modes of Governance?.

Criticism

From a critical perspective, the governance approach is tacked a bias in problem solving. Due to a focused orientation to solving collective problems could questions about particular interests and maintain power / profit back into the background. In addition Entstaatlichungstendenzen and related issues by accountability and legitimacy are problematized. Contrast, are approaches that provide less the withdrawal of the state at the center of considerations, rather than treat the moralization of the market from a theoretical perspective.