Developing an Open Governance System for Local Development (WITHDRAWN)

Abstract

New perspectives on government and coordination represent a general response to the dramatic increase in the complexity of the social world. If we add increasing problems of openness and democratic participation, it is clear that we need to develop new approaches to local development. In the paper we first survey the current problems related to local government, in order to understand how particular governance structures work. Then we propose an approach to the development of an open governance system, partly based on social systems theory, with its orientation towards problems of complexity registration and reduction. The problem is: How can we change a governance system to be more openly collaborative and transparent? The paper develops a solution to this problem, based on the choice and implementation of several interventions, representing broad and democratic participation from local stakeholders, and resulting in an open governance system with great capacity for collective action and local development. As a final practical illustration, we use this theoretical framework to analyze the governance of a town center retail system and its need to develop a regional competitive position.