Master of International Affairs   Master of Public Policy   Master of Data Science for Public Policy  

Governance in areas of limited statehood

Most states are more or less far away from the "Weberian ideal type" of bureaucratic rule. Such "limited statehood" is not an exception, it is the rule and more likely than not, it is here to stay. In a nutshell, the course is exploring the consequences that this condition has for understanding and influencing governance understood as the provision of collective goods such as security, welfare, education, public health, a clean environment, etc. Most of the contemporary discourse on governance takes certain core elements of an ideal type of statehood for granted. Particularly prominent among those are an effective monopoly over the legitimate use of force and/or the ability to implement and enforce political decisions. Often overlooked by mainstream research, however, in most parts of the world these assumptions do not hold. In most developing countries and transition states and even within OECD member states, control over the use of force is at least incomplete, and/or the state’s ability to implement and enforce political decisions is limited. Under such conditions, governance faces particular challenges and works differently from standard models. The course starts by analytically separating governance from statehood, which will allow us to analyze various modes of governance within and beyond the parameters of statehood. Case-wise, we will draw on numerous examples of governance from countries of the Southern hemisphere while covering a broad range of policy problems – from education and water supply via health services to disaster relief, and peace mediation.

This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP and MDS students only.

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