Geography, public administration and governance

Attention is directed to a number of principles that possibly can guide the on-going debates on governmental and administrative reform. The most important principles are the integrality of political decision-making at each self-governmental tier and territorial effectiveness of internalization of external effects, in particular the way hierarchy can be disaggregated. As the concept of a region-as-advocate-of-local interests applies to states, provinces and municipalities, interest formation on the basis of identity of self-governmental units is different from interest formation of other corporate actors. The institutional self-interest of local/regional governments must be granted a special place in the debates, especially in view of contemporary challenges (decreasing aspirations of the welfare state, simultaneous decentralization and centralization, flexibility) and the response to these challenges (shift from hierarchical government to networked governance entailing the risk that political legitimacy will exclusively be derived from increased efficiency; change of organizational structures versus change of ways of functioning).