Governance, Informal

Many academic observers would argue that we have witnessed a shift from government to governance over the past decenniums, reflected in “softer” and more indirect steering mechanisms. Governance also involves more interaction between [Page 1019]public authorities and other social actors. Still, from a distance, the discussion seems rather confusing, in that different meanings of the concept of governance are used in the literature. According a few European scholars, the term governance basically refers to “new” ideas related to the involvement of society in the process of governing. According to some American specialists, on the other hand, the term retains much of its original steering conception. To overcome this conceptual challenge, one may understand governance as consisting of four activities:

• 1.
  the process of articulating common priorities,
• 2.
  the process of bringing coherence to these priorities,
• 3.
  the process of and capacity for steering, and
• 4.
  the processes of establishing some form of accountability.

Based on this perspective, this entry explains the characteristics of informal governance and the different forms it takes and discusses how informal governance may be evaluated in terms of effectiveness and democracy.

Governance can assume many different forms and can be classified along different dimensions. Focusing on the extent of formality, one can argue that governance is formal when the production of authoritative decisions and actions takes place in a single hierarchical structure, such as a democratically elected legislative assembly and government.

Moving to the opposite pole, informal governance means that the production of public values arises from the interaction of a plethora of public and private and collective and individual actors. The mechanisms in use depend, moreover, to some extent on the cooperation of the involved nongovernmental actors. Informal governance means that participation in the decision-making process is not yet or cannot in fact be codified and publicly enforced. But it may also mean that a certain group of decision makers agree informally to advocate or enact particular policies, while still acting in formal decision-making contexts.

Informal governance is not new, nor should it be associated with specific institutions or levels of government. Governments have been engaged in informal governance since time immemorial, and informal governance can be found in institutions such as the European Union (EU), as in national, regional, and local policy processes.