Governance strategies for self-organizing community collectives: what do public servants and citizens expect

This paper explores the views on governance of public officials and (self-organizing) collectives and analyzes the difference in governance perceptions of these twogroups. Since establishing new collectives of citizens for... [ view full abstract ]

This paper explores the views on governance of public officials and (self-organizing) collectives and analyzes the difference in governance perceptions of these twogroups. Since establishing new collectives of citizens for various services and products has increased significantly the past 10 years this is extremely relevant. To explore this we used Q methodology in which we presented respondents (40 public officials and 40 members of collectives) constructed statements on governance based on four governance perspectives: Traditional Government, New Public Management, Network Governance and Self-Governance. Analysis shows that we can identify four profiles that combine a strong reliance on self-governance, but adds aspects from the traditional government perspective that focus on safeguarding public values and adds some ideas about collaboration that come from the network governance perspective. The New Public Management perspective is rejected. These findings support claims of authors suggesting the development of a fourth governance perspective on self-governance.