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Modern british governance "Critical evaluation of the argument that britain has seen a move from government to governance since the late 1970s"

Table of Contents

Introduction. 

Britain’s Shift from Government to Governance. 

Government vs. Governance. 

Features of Britain’s shift from Government to Governance. 

The emergence of Governance. 

Age of Austerity. 

Major Outcome of Britain’s Shift: Highly Developed Policymaking. 

References. 

Introduction

Britain’s Shift from Government to Governance

According to Steurer (2013), Britain’s paradigm shift from the government to governance has resulted in modernization and constitutional reform in the ideas and practice of the country.

It has not only developed an association with civic-ness but has also increased the effectiveness of organizations and policy-making within the country.

Government vs. Governance

Government and governance have been observed as evidently different. Governance involves a number of disciplines such as management, sociology, law, economics and political sciences.

It has been difficult to understand what govern really means, governance after many changes has taken its form by a combination of multitudinous forces such as:

“devolution, Europeanization, globalization, traditional welfare state being pressured and modern political cultures” as described by Meehan (2003, p. 2), where the provision of services with regards to the welfare state in a traditional fashion is not considered authoritative.Modern British Governance “Critical Evaluation of the Argument That Britain Has Seen a Move from Government to Governance since the Late 1970s”

Governance focuses on a wide range of modern practices. This incorporates the division or fragmentation of the public power, which is basically sharing the authority among different degrees of regulations; for example, bodies like the European Union, state and sub-state governments.

Moreover, it encourages that policies must be well-outlined and executed far from the focus of making privatization common in the country when it comes to public services. (Sandström, Crona and Bodin, 2014).

Furthermore, the analysts of the governance heavily rely on partnerships and network in order to create a highly well-executed policy strategy and delivery to the citizens.

As stated by Emerson, Nabatchi and Balogh (2012) and Spear, Cornforth and Aiken (2009), Governance basically contrasts the typical and traditional pattern of government, where the authority has the entire power to make decisions.

It is against the centralized authority that is exercised in the hierarchy in the country, which is often stated as the command and control model’.

Features of Britain’s shift from Government to Governance

There has been a drastic change in the UK government due to the paradigm shift in the constitutional reform from the government to governance.Modern British Governance “Critical Evaluation of the Argument That Britain Has Seen a Move from Government to Governance since the Late 1970s”.  It has introduced aspects of governance which were never seen in the history of the UK government.

Due to the change, power in the nation is now less concentrated than before. The core executive of the country has reconstituted itself and therefore, the organs of the country are different now (Durose, 2009).

 In the case of Britain, according to the ‘Westminster model’, some of the features of the move from government to governance include “parliamentary sovereignty, accountability through fair elections, majority control over the executive, strong cabinet government, central party dominance, doctrine of ministerial responsibility and non-political civil servants”(Meehan, 2003, p. 5).

Modern British Governance “Critical Evaluation of the Argument That Britain Has Seen a Move from Government to Governance since the Late 1970s”. From the viewpoint of the Westminster model, the political system of Britain has been characterized as a government with strong cabinet, accountability and fair elections (Pahl-Wostl, 2009).

 One of the major alternations related to the change from a traditional form of government to new public management. This move in the British government allowed the constitutional reform to take place and decentralization of public-private partnerships within the country.

This move introduced modernization and, hence, the quality of the social capital is also increased (Weiss and Wilkinson, 2014).

The effectiveness of the roles of civic associations has improved with the advancement in the establishment and maintenance of institutions, where they are very well implemented in the country (Covell, Bulkeley and Owens, 2009).

Emergence of Governance

Due to the emergence of governance, there has been a rational and ethical change in the considerations of the rediscovery within civil society of UK.

Besides this, Morison (2000, p. 112-13) has highlighted that “the new traces of the relationship between the civil society of Britain and the state due to the aftermath of the Labor Party’s revision of its talisman” has been addressed in Clause 1V and the progress of compacted papers published in 1998.

These papers further urged on the importance of standing up to take the primary stage in a new confirmation of the association between régime and civil society (Hooghe and Marks, 2009). These compacts have addressed a relationship between ideas regarding considerations of social capital and the governance.

Another representation stated, “they demonstrate that power is dispersed throughout society and ‘that the formal limits between civil society and the state are in reality traversed by networks which operate across constitutional boundaries” (Meehan, 2003, p. 10).Modern British Governance “Critical Evaluation of the Argument That Britain Has Seen a Move from Government to Governance since the Late 1970s”.

All through the late 1990s, the PM had displayed ample association between their programmes related to modernization, participation and presence. This has improved Britain society from quite a lot of aspects.

It has urged to tackle equal opportunity issues with regards to genders, changing the women’s role in the society and encouraging citizens to participate in the decision making. This has further promoted civic sense and activism and has also invested in the social capital (Bevir, 2011).

This move from government to governance has turned around the UK so that it no more consists of a central government. It has turned the state from being the only influencing authority source inside a specific region to be a coordinator and an activator in the negotiation of the hierarchy within the UK.

Furthermore, the idea surrounding governance originates the increase in a number of borders’ penetrability and ‘pooling of sovereignty’ among EU and the nations (Bell and Hindmoor, 2009).

The government simply refers to “the formal institutions of the state and their monopoly of legitimate coercive power” (Stoker, 1998, p. 17).

It can be further stated as “Government is characterized by its ability to make decisions and its capacity to enforce them. In particular, the government is understood to refer to the formal and institutional processes to maintain public order and facilitate collective actions” as mentioned by (Stoker, 1998, p. 17).

According to the governance’s traditional meaning, it is the synonym of government. Yet in the emerging condition of the global, the meaning of governance has transformed. Governance is now rather “a change in the meaning of government, referring to a new process of governing; or a changed condition of the ordered rule; or the new method by which society is governed” (Stoker, 1998, p. 17).

Governance is eventually concerned by the creation of the state of affairs for the reason of methodical rules and collaborative actions within the society. This is one of the reasons why the outcomes of governance have a slight difference from the outcomes of government, where there are differences in their processes.

In terms of the contribution by other effective institutions, governance has encouraged the participation of different corporate and not for profit organizations. The phenomenon of power-sharing used in governance has produced more effective results than the government. The move has promoted modernization and constitutional reform in the UK.

Globalization now plays a huge and important role in developing the economy of the country and, therefore, move from government to governance in 70’s has proved that globalization can make a huge impact in the UK’s development and economy. It has enabled democracy and orthodox voting process.

However, the emergence of governance has enabled the lack of accountability, which is currently the main issue faced due to Britain’s shift. Due to the participation of multiple stakeholders, multilateral negotiations among different actors of state, diverse population and civic leaders have raised the challenge of democratic accountability.

Nonetheless, after extensive researches conducted since 70’s, governance has been proven to be better than the government in Britain. Governance is better at solving problems and accomplishes desired results. Democratically, it has increased the civil society’s quality and supported civic participation.

Back in the days, women used to constantly fight for their rights in terms of employment wage, position in the society and voting rights. But, since the emergence of governance in 70’s, women’s role has immensely transformed.

Now positions in the top hierarchy of Britain’s government are given to the deserving ones regardless of their sex, gender, race, colour and religion. A recent example is of the Pakistani British politician who belonged to a low-class background and yet got elected as the mayor of London.