Rethinking depoliticisation: beyond the governmental

Abstract

Matt Wood, m.wood@sheffield.ac.uk Matthew Flinders, m.flinders@sheffield.ac.uk University of Sheffield, UK Stagnating political participation, the growth of delegated agencies and the prevalence of rationalistic-technocratic discourse all represent interlinking aspects of what can been termed 'the depoliticised polity'. Existing research has overwhelmingly focused on institutional or governmental depoliticisation strategies and fails to acknowledge repoliticisation as a critical counter-trend. This article argues that these weaknesses can be addressed through 'a three faces' approach that embraces societal and discursive depoliticisation strategies as complementary statecraft dynamics that often underpin more tangible governmental strategies. By revealing the existence of multiple forms of depoliticisation this approach also offers new insights in terms of politicisation and sociopolitical change.key words depoliticisation • governance • politicisation • post-democracy article SPECIAL ISSUE • Depoliticisation, governance and the state

(De)Politicization Dynamics in Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs): Lessons from a comparison between UK and Flemish PPP policy

“…Although the concept depoliticization is very interesting, there is more conceptual precision needed. Wood and Flinders (2014) have distinguished three faces of depoliticization. First, governmental depoliticization focuses on the transfer of issues or functions from the governmental sphere to the public sphere through its delegation by elected politicians towards arm's length agencies, boards, commissions or judicial structures.…”

“…Second, PPPs are also an interesting micro-case for what is happening on macro-scale in terms 6 Public Management Review of the changing relationships between the government, market and society (and the impact of the global financial crisis on it). Third, although depoliticization is a much studied theme, we argue that the relatively 'young' research field of PPPs can add some new insights that contribute to a more sophisticated and comprehensive account of the 'old' concept (see Wood and Flinders 2014 for a plea on crossdisciplinary approach). Up to now, 'depoliticization' has been studied mainly in terms of economic, monetary and fiscal policy (Buller and Flinders 2005;Burnham 2001;Jessop 2014).…”

“…Wood and Flinders (2014) propose to study the consequences of depoliticization using a cross-disciplinary approach that goes beyond the narrow governmental analyses of this phenomenon. Hay (2014) also emphasizes the need for more empirical studies to advance our understanding of depoliticization.…”

Governance Arrangements for Adaptation to Climate Change

“…The multilevel approach starts from the idea that governance actions may be required at several levels simultaneously instead of focusing on "the one right level" (Verkerk et al, 2015). Governance actors must operate at multiple levels in order to capture variations in both the impacts of climate adaptation as policy outcomes and externalities (Hooghe & Marks, 2003).…”

“…Synchronization-also known as mutual adjustment in the literature on polycentric governance-goes beyond orchestrated interplay and starts from the often assumed self-organizing quality of governance processes (Jaworski, 1996). Synchronization arises when actors at different levels give meaning to their processes in relation to the "whole" governance context and, based upon that, position their actions in such a way that they attune to other actions and strengthen one another (Verkerk et al, 2015;Van Buuren et al, 2010;Teisman & Edelenbos, 2011). Boundary actors are crucial in these synchronization processes, as well as specific interventions at junctures when specific issues hinder synergy (Verkerk et al, 2015).…”