The alternative research strategy – look at the state as the ‘dependent variable’ – raises questions about how the emergence of governance alters the powers and capacities of the state. The increasing reliance on various forms of public – private coordinated projects, or on voluntary forms of joint action with subnational government, or the challenges posed by transantional forms of governance , put tremendous strain on the institutional arrangement of the state and the management of these institutions (kooiman,1993). This is primarily because political institutions are significantly constrained by the ‘due process’ and can not move financial resources as easily as corporate actors. While public-private partnerships aim precisely at grating institutions such discretion, this is often used as an argument against such partnerships (Keating, 1998; peters, 1998d). Thus, while partnerships may be a comfortable way of increasing the state’s points of contact with the surrounding society it also feeds back into the state apparatus and causes strain between the ‘due process’ and the need to be as flezible as the other partner.