Governance as civil servant practice(s). A theoretical and analytical contribution.

Abstract

How can we understand and analytically grasp the practices that 'operate the state'? Departing in the contemporary focus on 'co-production' in governance regimes such as New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Governance (NPG), the paper critically discusses the foundation of governance studies where a basic distinction between governor and governed tends to be taken for granted and, consequently, left out of the understanding. Against this, it is argued that the Althusserian concept of interpellation installs a necessary connection between a superior Subject - often understood as 'the state' - and dependent subjects. Drawing on Hegel's concept of 'the universal class' ('der allgemeine Stand') and deploying the ethnologically-based life-mode theory, it is asserted that a state-subject can make up a coherent and resilient whole only by encompassing a viable 'civil servant life-mode'. The paper elaborates three principal dimensions of civil servant practices: 'policy-developing', 'operationalizing', and 'policy-implementing'. It presents two contemporary NPG projects in order to discuss, with these concepts, how governance processes operate, even when 'co-production' is a defining characteristic.