Western political systems have undergone significant shifts in recent decades. In the era of post-war mass democracy governments governed and political communication informed. Now, however, governance includes non-government as well as government actors, and a communications dynamic pervades the entire political system. This article examines the integration of governance and communication, conceptualising the interactive strategies associated with new governance patterns in communications terms. The core argument is that the emergence of recursive forms of communication and knowledge production are indicative of systemic imperatives at work that are producing novel patterns of social coordination and policy formation.
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