While all of these visions of governance are legitimate within their own parameters, it is
argued here that the term has the capacity to be much more than a walk-on part or
surrogate for other approaches to PAM. Indeed, some writers, notably Kickert,
Kooiman and Rhodes above, have begun to move in that direction. The intention here
is to carve a distinctive niche for the NPG that both has the capacity to be intellectually
coherent and rigorous and has the capacity to capture the realities of PAM within the
plural and pluralist complexities of PAM in the twenty-first century. This brief article
may not go all the way to meet these two self-imposed conditions, but it is a
commencement to the process of reaching such rigour and relevance.