Governance and government
The concern with governance represent a closing of the circle of the rapid, if not turbulent, political development during the twen-tieth century. The first decades of this era saw the consolidation of democratic government throughout the western world. In Western Europe, and slightly later in the United States, the early post-Second World War period witnessed the second phase of political change. Governments took a higher profile, embarked on political projects of regulation, economic redistribution and, more generally, an expan-sion of the political sphere of society (Maier, 1978). What in the United as ‘The Strong’ – two very different national con-texts – essentially meant growing government, including increased public spending on public services and welfare state programmes and – albeit with substantial national variation – a growing political intervention in the market. These were the times when government was seen as the appropriate, legitimate and unchallenged vehicle for social change, equality and economic development.