Assessing the impact of political partnerships on coordinated meta-governance of regional governance

Abstract

New partnership-arrangements appear to increase the need to impose democratic controls over devolved processes. The challenges of political anchorage in meta-governance alter when several public meta-governors are accountable for the results. This article focuses on political partnerships’ ability to establish coordinated meta-governance of regional governance between the politically elected bodies, which in this case is the county council and the municipalities. On the basis of an empirical study of a Norwegian case of regional councils, namely, partnerships between the municipalities and the county, I show how the traditional concept of steering and the understanding of meta-governance together may provide a comprehensive way to analyse the capacities of meta-governance amongst public actors. The analysis suggests that the most important factors of the partnership for creating or enhancing coordinated and meta-governance of regional governance are storytelling, formal agreements, and facilitation.  Even though politicians are ‘hands on’ in the partnership, the analysis suggests that an insufficient anchorage back to the democratically elected bodies still presents a challenge of coordinated meta-governance to the partnership.