Authoritative Governance

Professor Rod Rhodes, University of Tasmania Maarten Hajer's stories of politicians as performers enacting dramas that imbue governance with meaning open novel and exciting ways of understanding how authoritative governance is possible.

Professor Archon Fung, Harvard University Authoritative Governance shows it's not so much that politicians have suddenly become more democratic, but rather the old vestments of election, party, and expertise fail to confer legitimacy; they are struggling to constantly re-create the authority they need to govern. Hajer's new book is a must-read for students of authority who want to understand real responses to contemporary legitimation crises and for policy-makers facing distrustful publics.

Professor Lance Bennett, University of Washington Hajer encourages scholars of politics, policy, and communication to rethink the nature of authority in mediated democracies and illuminates the key dilemma of authority in our age. Political authority is no longer conveyed by large numbers of citizens on the basis of shared memberships and allegiances. It is constructed through complex media performances aimed at multiple fragmenting audiences.

<br>Maarten A. Hajer is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Amsterdam and Director of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. He is the author of the celebrated The Politics of Environmental Discourse (OUP 1995).<br>

1. The Authority Problem of Governance; 2. A Framework for Analysis; 3. Performing Authority after the Assassination of Theo Van Gogh; 4. Contested Authority in Rebuilding Ground Zero; 5. Authority through Deliberative Governance: the British Food Standards Agency in Action; 6. The Paradox of Authority in a Mediatized Politics