Effective Governance and the Political Economy of Coordination

This book provides a conceptual and methodological approach for researchers evaluating governance and policy in the face of complexity, and demonstrates the application of this approach across different governance and policy contexts. It fills a significant gap in the literature on governance, and proposes a theoretical focus on coordination to enable the assessment of multi-tier, cross-sector governance institutions and policy. It also introduces a range of applications for the proposed approach, including two case studies of governance and policy for the built environment and health services. The book introduces, analyses and draws from a range of perspectives in political economy, political science, policy analysis and evaluation. It also engages with longstanding debates in political economy about states and markets, which are largely overlooked by political science analyses of coordination challenges in governance. The book will appeal to scholars and students of governance, public policy and political science.

“Greenwood's book offers a fantastic model of interdisciplinary research. It will be of significant value to those interested in the broad areas of governance and policy evaluation (particularly complex policy problems) as well as those with interests in heterodox and classical liberal political economy. Scholarship in both fields will gain much from a close engagement with this work.” (Jonathan Benson, The University of Manchester, UK)

“This book is admirable both in the interdisciplinary range and depth of analysis in the work. It recognises the  challenges of achieving a desired rather than an unintended change and argues cogently for dynamics of co-ordination that allow for fluid and flexible discovery of the best options and paths forward.” (Gerry Stoker, Professor, University of Southampton, UK)

“This is an extremely valuable and rare contribution to debates about effective governance structures. It provides a well-balanced though critical assessment of arguments about the qualities of different governance arrangements that properly engages all sides and perspectives.” (Mark Pennington, Professor of Department of Political Economy, King's College, University of London, United Kingdom)

“Dan Greenwood’s Effective Governance and the Political Economy of Coordination brings together a variety of perspectives in political science and political economy in order to develop a novelapproach to thinking about problems of governance. His emphasis on openness, discovery, and learning is an important and welcome reminder of how governance systems can be improved when we don’t shy away from the challenges associated with using policy to solve complex problems.” (Jayme Lemke, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Centre, George Mason University, USA)

Dan Greenwood is Reader in Politics at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, UK. His research focuses on policy analysis, governance evaluation and political economy.