Complexing Governance Styles: Connecting Politics and Policy in Governance Theories

Abstract

Governance theories consider policy steering as modes sustained in hierarchies, markets, and networks. If governance depoliticizes public management structures, then populism and technocratic forms’ emergence in politics is a threat to public governance. This article analyzes governance styles, showing how a reconciliation between the dimensions of policy and politics is necessary to think about policy steering’s complexity and its ensuing paths. We develop a typology of governance styles to address policy and political dynamics. This typology shows how different governance styles combine pluralist, populist, and technocratic elements, along with hierarchies, markets, and networks. We illustrate our typology with different policies conceived in distinct political regimes in Brazil. We argue that governance theories must incorporate a perspective of political conflict, path dependence, and contingency. This perspective on political conflict is essential for understanding governance reforms and how they shape public management practices.