Theoretical Approaches to Metagovernance

Abstract

An increasingly important issue for governance network theory is how and to what extent it is possible for governors to regulate self-regulating networks. It is generally recognized that governance networks must be regulated if they are to contribute to the efficient governing of society. But since a constitutive feature of governance networks is self-regulation, it is not possible to regulate governance networks by means of traditional sovereign forms of detailed, hierarchical and bureaucratic regulation. Sovereign forms of regulation would inevitably undermine the self-regulating capacity of the networks. Governance network theory describes how efforts to harvest the governing capacity of self-regulating networks, while still being able to ensure an overall societal governance, has brought with it a growth in new forms of governance, and suggest ways in which such forms of regulation can be developed further (Mayntz & Marin 1991; Kooiman 1993; Scharpf 1997; Pierre & Peters 2000, 2005; Rhodes 2000b; Milward & Provan 2000b; Richardson 2000; O’Toole & Meier 2000; Van Heffen, et al. 2000; Goss 2001).