The transformation of governance: new directions in politics and policy

Abstract

Conclusion: The main conclusion of this paper is that there has indeed been a transformation, or even several transformations, of governance in Western states since 1945. However, the social science literature has been deeply divided with regard to the significance of these changes and indeed whether anything has really changed. In this paper we argue that there has been at least one paradigm shift – from the welfare state to the neoliberal state – and that we are perhaps witnessing a third towards something like a communitarian social state. The transformation of governance is really one manifestation of a wider set of transformations: of the economy, of the state, of society and of culture. These transformations signal the collapse of at least one conception of the modern nation-state and have profound implications for political democracy and the nature of our political systems. It is argued in this paper that we should neither attempt to turn the clock back to either the liberal 19th century watchman state (the neo-liberal project) nor to the mechanisms of the welfare state. Nor should we resign ourselves to sinking into post-modernist disintegration and intellectual however much contemporary culture and society seem to have these characteristics. Rather we need to refound the basic concepts of democracy and to reflect on the kinds of political, economic and societal institutions that might be necessary to give this expression.