Who governs in the Americas and in Europe?
15 November, 2012 - 17 November, 2012
Université de Poitiers, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Sociét Poitiers, France
Organised by:
Universities of Poitiers (MIMMOC), Caen (ERIBIA), Paris Ouest Nanterre (CREA) and the University of Maine (3L. AM) Le Mans
In his book, Who Governs? Dahl defines the American democratic system as a ’polyarchy’ where the separation of powers is the rule, and where political power is split between the different competing dominant groups seeking to have their choices and ideas accepted and implemented. The point he made then predated the emergence of the notion of ’governance’ which has become more widely used since the 1990s. The notion of “governance”, which was initially used to designate the way in which a government exercises its economic, political and administrative powers and manages its resources and development, was subsequently extended to cover other areas. This explains why the concept has been widely used by theoreticians of public policy, political scientists and sociologists.
The question now is to determine whether the passage from the notion of ’government’ to that of ’governance’ is indicative of a mere semantic modification or rather implies a major ideological shift