Research programme IGS

RESEARCH PROGRAM AND STRATEGIC RESEARCH ORIENTATION

Research of most CES members is embedded in the research program of the Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies (http://www.utwente.nl/research/igs). In the strategic research orientation called Innovation of Governance, we focus on changes in the relationships between citizens and their government at various levels, with specific attention for the emergence of multilevel governance, from the viewpoints of legitimacy and effectiveness.

This research program focuses on the developments in the public sphere. It draws on, and further develops theories and insights from the fields of public administration, political science, sociology, law and public sector economics. Traditionally, the study of public bureaucracies has been conducted from an essentially monocentric, top-down perspective. The public governance approach adopted in this program has a broader scope, in that it is sensitive to the involvement of a variety of both public and private organizations in the pursuit of public interests. The public governance approach has at the same time re-conceptualized its former hierarchical perspective into a more cooperative mode where state and non-state actors participate in mixed public/private networks.

The research within the program hinges on two core criteria of public governance: legitimacy and effectiveness. The program covers semantic as well as descriptive, explanatory and evaluative research. Research is conducted from the perspectives of the nation-state, subnational authorities, and the European Union. At all three levels, research is organized in formal research networks and combines fundamental work with a strong orientation towards the practice of governance.

The four research lines in Innovation of Governance are:

- Dynamics of mass and elite political behavior. Global social developments and their differential impact on societies and political systems are in the heart of this research line. The responses of citizens and of political elites to these developments, that include modernization, globalization, and Europeanization, are the primary object of study. Social, legal and political institutions serve as intermediary variables, moderating the effect of these developments on public opinion and mass and elite behavior. This research line includes several large-scale survey projects. The research line is in two ways connected to technological research. First, important advances are at present being made in the conduct of especially survey research as a result of developments in ICT. These advances are at the core of the National Roadmap project ‘Data Infrastructure for the Social Sciences’, in which the research group plays an important part. Secondly, technological developments also affect the object of study, i.e. public governance processes, in profound ways that are still in need of being elaborated.

- Governance in multilevel settings. Legal, social and political institutions also impact directly on the outcome of governance processes. In this research line, the institutional perspective on processes of governance dominates. It focuses on the European, cross-national, and local levels of government.

- Safety, security, and governance. In this third research line, governance issues of safety and security are the core interest. The research line builds upon the established research line of police studies (IPIT) but extends this older line towards the more general field of crime science. Input to the field of crime science is provided by a number of other fields at the UT: sociology, psychology, communication science, political science and policy studies. This research line is developed in close cooperation with IBR and CTIT and will be organized in a collaborative research program.

- Effectiveness of innovations in public management. Public managers are increasingly operating in complex governance settings, involving different government levels, quasi-autonomous public bodies and non-profit organizations, private firms, special interest groups, citizens and clients of public services. Management tools have been introduced to cope with these complexities, such as network management, performance management, benchmarking, contracts and covenants, etc. This research line, employing theories of management control, studies the effectiveness of innovative public management tools, as measured against the collective goals pursued.