Authoritative Governance: Policy Making in the Age of Mediatization

A major new statement from one of the world's leading theorists of public policy
A radical new way of understanding and interpreting politics in the 21st century
Three fascinating case studies bring the argument to life

The role of the media has become a central part of politics and policy in the twenty-first century. That dominance has led many to suggest a trend of 'dumbing down': the privileging of style over content. In this provocative new book, Maarten Hajer takes issue with the 'dumbing down' thesis both on theoretical and empirical grounds. He aims to show how authoritative governance remains possible in crisis driven circumstances and a highly 'mediatized' world.

The book elaborates a communicative understanding of authority, which, the author argues, can create a new basis for authoritative governance in a world marked by political and institutional fragmentation. Extending his discourse-analytical framework, Hajer uses both discursive and dramaturgical methods to study policymakers in their struggle for authority. Three detailed case studies-the plans to rebuild Ground Zero, the aftermath of the assassination of Theo Van Gogh, and the recent role of the British Food Standards Agency -provide a wealth of detail of the dynamics of authority in today's mediatized polity and bring out the peculiar role that crises now play.

The argument of the book is that in the age of mediatization governance needs to be 'performed'. Hajer describes a genuinely new authoritative governance that breaks with existing interpretations. He demonstrates ways in which the traditional government of standing institutions and notions of network governance can be combined in actively creating relations with a variety of publics.

Readership: Scholars and students of public policy and media studies.



1: Maarten Hajer: The Authority Problem of Governance
2: Maarten Hajer: A Framework for Analysis
3: Maarten Hajer with Justus Uitermark: Performing Authority after the Assassination of Theo Van Gogh
4: Maarten Hajer: Contested Authority in Rebuilding Ground Zero
5: Maarten Hajer with David Laws & Wytske Versteeg: Authority through Deliberative Governance: the British Food Standards Agency in Action
6: Maarten Hajer: The Paradox of Authority in a Mediatized Politics



Maarten A. Hajer, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Amsterdam and Director of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

Maarten Hajer, author of the celebrated The Politics of Environmental Discourse - Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process (Oxford UP, 1995).

Contributors:
Maarten Hajer, University of Amsterdam
Justus Uitermark, Univeristy of Amsterdam
David Laws, University of Amsterdam
Wytske Versteeg, University of Amsterdam

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