CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Canadian Public Administration

Canadian Public Administration

The traditional conceptualization of the public sector has come under increasing strain during the past several decades. The idea that national governments are the major actors in public policy and that they are able to influence the economy and society through their actions now appears to be in doubt. Some of the strain on national governments has been the result of the increased importance of the international environment and of an arguably diminished capacity of those governments to insulate their economies and societies from the global pressures. Those pressures on national governments come about through international capital markets (Fry, 1989) as well as through supranational organizations such as the European Union.

Another strain on the traditional conception of governing arises from changes in the relationship between government and the private sector. At the extreme it is argued that "governance without government" is becoming the dominant pattern of management for advanced industrial democracies. Other characterizations include "hollow" states and governments (Fry, 1989) and "negotiated" states and economies. In all these depictions of changing patterns of government, it is argued that societal actors have become influential over policy and administration and have done so in ways that were unimaginable in earlier times. Government is seen as weakened and as incapable of "steering" as it had in the past. The traditional concept of government as a controlling and regulating organization for society is argued to be outmoded (Fry, 1989).

The discussion of governance without government has been largely European and has concentrated primarily in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The European roots of this debate appear to be in part a function of the preeminent role of government in the welfare state in Europe and of the strength and established position of interest groups in these societies (Denhardt, and Denhardt, Vinzant, 2000). In essence government has much more power to lose, more areas of policy involvement, and a network structure already in place that can replace or supplement the power of government. In the United Kingdom the emergence of this pattern of governing is a direct challenge to the Whitehall model of strong, centralized government.

Although the governance debate has been largely European, it is beginning to diffuse to the United States. There is some objective evidence that the same changes--such as contracting, public-private partnerships, and a variety of other interactions with the private sector-move government away from its role ...