Governance as content and process of decisioning in public affairs

No abstractAfter twenty years of liberal reforms concerning the structure and the functions of the state that have led, in many cases, to new economic and social inequalities; the theory of Governance is claiming their political redefinition. In its modern conception, Governance is understood both as content and process of the political decision making. It refers mostly to a new model of organising the relationships between the state and the civil society that is different from hierarchies and markets and has a structure of a net. Governance raises, also, the point of the existence of a strong national state with powerful institutions that ensure democracy, equal opportunities and transparency. Furthermore, Governance aims at the effective combination of the principles that New Economy and New Public Management have developed and promoted (accountability, efficiency, effectiveness and professionalism) with the concepts of wide public consultation and social justice. Likewise, Governance presents a special theoretical interest, inasmuch as through the criticism that is exercised to the liberal economic and social policies, it is the theories of Public Choice and New-Institutionalism that are criticised. Moving beyond Ethnomethodology and Symbolic Interaction towards a self-referential theory of the subject, Governance could gain in theoretical autonomy, while its political programme could become more flexible and practical