Policy and Complex Systems - Volume 1 Issue 1 - Spring 2014
Policymaking in an Information Wired Environment : Realigning Government and Governance Relationships by Complexity Thinking
Claudio Inguaggiato A , Sylvie Occelli B
One core issue in policy making is the management over time of the relationships between the inside and outside government functioning . Although many societal changes are modifying these relationships , they also offer new possibilities . The kind of systemic learning enabled by an increasingly information-rich environment provided by new sociotechnical systems is one of it . In this context , the case of the Piedmont region is discussed where , because of the fragmentation among the government bodies , devising effective government / governance relationships for service delivery is becoming an increasingly severe policy problem . An effort is made to show how an application of a social network analysis can help in addressing the problem , i . e . by prompting a shared reasoning among different government bodies and investigating the range of aggregation opportunities for local municipalities .
Keywords : sociotechnical systems , systemic learning , government – governance relationships , social network analysis .
1 . Introduction
To govern means to share authority ,
ideas , and information with partners as well as with rivals . The system of relationships underlying it encompasses not only public organizations and institutions ( government ), but also methods and instruments for governing ( governance ) ( OECD 2011 ).
Although the complexity features of government and governance are by no means a novelty in political and organizational studies ( see for example , Conklin 2006 ; Rittel and Webber 1973 ; van Dijk and Winters-van Beek 2009 ), technological and societal changes in the last decade , as well as the current turmoil in the economy , call for further advances in the approaches of analysis ( Dennard , Richardson and Morçöl , eds . 2008 ; OECD 2009 ; Peach 2004 ; Wallis 2011 ).
A
Coordination Unit in Regione Piemonte , Corso Regina Margherita , 174 , 10152 , Turin , Italy .
B
IRES-Istituto di Ricerche Economico Sociali del Piemonte , Via Nizza 18 , 10125 , Turin , Italy .
1
Indeed , as explained by NESTA ( 2008 ), innovation has never been a main concern in the public sector as : a . the extent of mandated changes , such as those imposed by legislation or political changes ; indeed , this is considered as the main factor for change to occur in the public sector . This is clearly reflected in the ICT uptakes in the Piedmont municipalities , where improvement took place with boots and straps according to legislation ( see PICTO 2012 ); b . the weakness of ecological forces of competition and the risk aversion attitude , compared with the private sector , which would produce higher survival rates of existing public organizations ;
c . the pursue of ( maximization of ) public value which makes outputs of government programs often diffi-
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