Emerging coordination practices of European central governments

This symposium deals with new coordination practices that have emerged among European public sectors to cope with complex societal challenges. Governments struggle to deal with multifaceted policy problems that defy simple solutions and straddle the borders of organizations and ministerial areas of responsibility as well as administrative levels. Thus, public-sector coordination has become a key asset in governments’ policy capacity (Governments for the Future, 2013; Painter and Pierre, 2005). Traditional coordination by hierarchy has been supplemented by New Public Management (NPM) solutions relying on market and competition as well as by post-NPM initiatives attempting to (re-)integrate fragmented administrative apparatuses. Transboundary coordination arrangements such as networks, partnerships and shared performance targets have been introduced and a variety of new coordination practices have emerged across Europe to tackle contemporary policy challenges (Laegreid et al., 2014). These coordination practices vary in shape and form and go under different labels, such as whole-of-government, joined-up government, holistic governance, new public governance, networks, partnerships, connected government and collaborative public management.