Joris Voets

Democracy in Area-Based Policy Networks The Case of Ghent

This article discusses the issue of democratic quality of area-based policy networks, with particular attention to the complex settings of network relations and to the changes in local regimes. It is argued that present associative and deliberative frameworks of democratic theory are useful but inadequate to enable proper assessments of multilevel and multiactor policy arrangements. The article therefore combines both frameworks with a contextualized and dynamic perspective and supports this position with a case analysis of a spatial planning network in Ghent, Belgium. It finds that in Flanders, local representative democracywas dominated by corporatism and party political arrangements, and emergent networks for spatial planning are replacing old corporatist arrangements in a new institutional framework for local representative democracy. The article concludes that analyzing area-based networks without analyzing changes in representative democracy in the same area can easily lead to biased conclusions.

A framework for assessing the performance of policy networks

Abstract This article deals with the question of how to assess policy network performance. We propose three dimensions of policy network performance (production, process, and regime) that are derived from both performance and network literature. Each of these dimensions can be linked to the costs of policy networks. The framework goes beyond the one-dimensional new public management conceptualization of performance that focuses on efficiency and effectiveness. A policy network assessment needs to take into account other public principles such as democratic quality and capacity building.

Rescaling territorial governance: A Flemish perspective

Abstract In this article, the complex set of driving factors and mechanisms that explain the evolution of territorial governance in Flanders in economic and spatial policy are discussed. A mix of both exogenous and endogenous trends has led to an increased focus on the sub-regional arena and to an administrative and political jungle, creating opportunities for “smart” local actors. The result is a broadened, strengthened, more professional “political localism”—in part due to innovation in planning—that may potentially favour innovation at the local level, on a background of relatively stable and unaltered political routines at the central level.

Public-private partnerships in Flemish schools: a complex governance structure in a complex context

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are used very widely but remarkably little empirical research has been published investigating the governance of PPPs. PPPs are complex infrastructure projects and present important governance challenges as the responsibilities of public and private partners are ambiguous and can be confused. This paper looks at the interactions between the elements of complexity and at the governance structure of PPPs, and their combined effect on performance. A case study in Flanders (the northern region of Belgium) is discussed.

Coordinating for Integrated Youth Care: The need for smart metagovernance

Abstract Integrated youth care (IYC) requires co-ordination between many (semi-)autonomous actors, which can be achieved with a collaborative governance regime (CGR). Smart metagovernance by central government is imperative herein, choosing the mix of metagovernance roles at the right time for the issue at hand. Using a single case study of IYC in Flanders (Belgium), this article shows how important and difficult metagovernance is. Framing, designing, managing and participating in a CGR requires metagovernors to know when to allow for autonomy and dialogue, and when to use the ‘shadow of hierarchy’.

Contextualising City-regional Issues, Strategies and their Use: the Flemish Story

Abstract This paper presents a contextualised analysis of what might be called the city-regional debate. The debate is unfolded in terms of four types of city-regional issues, eight common strategies to tackle the latter and the use thereof in Flanders. It is concluded that the way in which city-regional issues are dealt with in Flanders can be explained by its regime, consisting of an administrative, political and cultural dimension, in terms of a centralistic policy style combined with a weak institutional position of local governments, by a ‘localisation’ of regional politics and policies, both dominated by an anti-urban bias.

Trajectories for Modernizing Local Governance: Revisiting the Flanders Case

Local government plays a central but altering role in local governance. Together with the shift from a night-watchman state to a welfare state , the models of governance provision changed. Government itself became larger and more scattered throughout the local community. Moreover, government was no longer the only governance provider. Many actors were involved in governance with a diversity of steering relations. In our time, governance continues to change. What are the emerging models of local governance today? After sorting out some terminological and methodological issues, we describe four emerging ideal-type models (i.e. the holding model , the autonomous networks model , the implementation model and the reintegration model ), based on four societal scenarios (i.e. triumphant markets , hundred flowers , creative societies and turbulent neighbourhoods ). The models represent four possible local governance futures. Next, the models are applied on two management issues: organizational structure and financial management. Finally, some embryonic evidence is given on the emergence of the models.

Designing Democratic Institutions for Collaborative Economic Development: Lessons from Belgian and Dutch Cases

Collaborative approaches to local economic development have developed in a number of European countries and other advanced economies (Giguere, in this volume). These take economic development from within public bureaucracies and relocate it to new organisational forms based on co-production between government and business, sometimes with the additional involvement of civil society associations and citizens. The resulting structures include quasi-autonomous public agencies, public–private partnership companies, multi-organisational boards and community-based organisations for neighbourhood regeneration, often operating in a multi-level environment of overlapping jurisdictions (Ansell, 2000; Heinelt and Kubler, 2005; Sullivan and Skelcher, 2002). The rationale for taking economic development out of the public bureaucracy is that it enables greater flexibility in approach because of the reduction of direct political oversight, and enhances policy design and implementation because of the engagement of non-state actors (Considine, in this volume).

Opening the black box of metagovernance: The roles of central government in local multilevel networks – the case of the local job centers in Flanders

In this article, we use the concept of metagovernance to explore how local service delivery networks involving public and private partners are shaped and managed by different governments involved. We address the following questions: What is the governance mix in cases of centrally designed local networks, with different public authorities involved in the network and focused on coordinated service delivery? How does that governance mix match the concept of metagovernance as we know it? What does this complexity of relationships and governing styles tell us about the self-governing capacity of local service delivery networks? We bring in the case of the local job centers in Flanders to deal with these questions empirically. We demonstrate the governance instrument mix used by the metagovernors, how dominant one public actor actually is in the network, and the effect thereof on the network dynamics. We also conclude that we need to rethink the concept of metagovernance when analyzing local multilevel networks.

The democratic character of new institutional governance arrangements: comparing Dutch and Belgian experiences

Governance networks create a problem of disconnection to clear principles of democratic legitimacy. This raises two questions: - to what extent is this involvement a threat to the classical politicial legitimacy by representative institutions? - how is the involvement of these actors democratically legitimized? This chapter examines two institutional arrangements that have been designed and emerged in two governance networks around economic developments: he Ghent Kanaalzone in Belgium and the development of the expansion of the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. We are especially interested in the question how these institutional arrangements reconnect actors and decision-making processes to democratic criteria of decision-making and the classical representation institutions. An analytical framework for examining institutional arrangements of governance networks is presented. This is followed by an examination of the way that problems of democratic governance have been managed empirically. Both cases illustrate how democratic decision making institutions developed over a period of more than 10 years. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the analysis for both policy makers and researchers.