Governance as Theory, Practice, and Dilemma

Multi-centred governance and circuits of power in liberal modes of security

“…42 At the core of second order disputes about security is a binary argument over whether political power has a (singular) centre, as in the imagery of the Leviathan, or whether it ought to be understood as a social force lacking any centre at all. 43 The contention here is that this binary argument generates a false dilemma for social science. Privileging a particular centre of power, such as the nation state, obscures the grounds for resistance to, and thus variegation in, the exercise of this power within and across, as well as between nation states, as recognised in work on trans-national, sub-national and supra-national 'fields of security'.…”

“…Social scientists should adopt a noticeably more interpretive approach in which practices appear as patterns of contingent activity explained by reference to the meanings within them and the historical contexts of these meanings. 52 The distinctiveness of the methodology underpinning the MCG is in its treatment of the context-dependency of security problems. If formal approaches under-contextualise accounts of security, precluding the opportunity to question variegation within the same context, then some historicist approaches provide over-contextualised accounts, inhibiting an understanding of whether there are processes of governing that can be transferred across contexts because they are context-independent.…”

“…Hence the fundamental criticism that formal models in social science fail to recognise their own historicity. 55 For these reasons the goals of critical social science, to arbitrate between rival truth-claims and provide a more emancipatory understanding of the problems and governing arrangements in question, must be rejected in favour of diagnostic descriptions of government. In response, critics of this strong historicism argue it prevents commentators from posing questions about why governing programmes prevail or fail, 56 how they can be reformed and what lessons can be drawn about this from comparative analysis.…”

“…1 Such trends are of obvious concern to the study of security and the capacity of nation states to deliver on their most basic, constitutive, obligation to guarantee universal public safety within their territorial jurisdictions 2 and in conditions of the alleged 'globalisation' of crime and other security threats that are believed to subvert this sovereignty. 3 Here, these arguments are considered in relation to critics of governance theories who have reasserted the significance of sovereign nation-state power and, therefore, a need to recentre the study of the state in the analysis of governmental power.…”

Governança Participativa: possibilidades e desafios na gestão local

“…De forma geral, o que se busca com a governança democrá ca é fortalecer o governo para que os obje vos sejam alcançados, tornar a gestão mais efi ciente e restabelecer a confi ança no setor público, recuperar a vitalidade democrá ca e garan r a legi midade polí ca, para que se tenha governabilidade (DINIZ, 1996;PETERS, 2005;FREY, 2007;OLIVEIRA, 2009;BECK, 2009 . Em se tratando das mo vações para as proposições de arranjos de governança par cipa va, destaques para as falhas observadas nos sistemas convencionais de responsabilização governamental (SPEER, 2012), para a crise da democracia representa va e de legi midade (DINIZ, 1996;SUBIRATS, 2001;CASTELLS, 2001;PETERS, 2005;MILANI, 2008, BEVIR, 2010aLA FUENT, 2010 ); para a onda de reformas e de descentralização observadas no mundo inteiro, como alterna vas ao modelo centralizado e rígido de governo (DINIZ, 1999;CASTELLS, 2001), Tainá Rodrigues Gomide Souza Pinto; Simone Mar ns; Danielle Silveira Leonel; Ivan Beck Ckagnazaroff para a mudança de paradigma de uma racionalidade tecnocrá ca para a delibera va, re rando do governo a exclusidade para se discu r e decidir sobre as polí cas públicas (SCHNEIDER, 2005;PETERS, 2005;BEVIR, 2011;BRUGUÉ, 2011). Leva-se em conta, na adoção do modelo de governança par cipa va, o envolvimento dos afetados pelas polí cas nos processos decisórios e de controle, compreendendo essa interação entre Estado e sociedade como um bom caminho para o governo responder de maneira mais efi ciente às demandas dos cidadãos.…”