The ‘governance debate’ and the study of sport policy

The ‘governance debate’ is one of the most influential intellectual conceptualisations of recent changes in British politics and policy in the fields of public administration and political science. This paper has two purposes: first, it introduces sport policy scholars and students to the contours of the ‘governance debate’ and how it has developed through the first-wave ‘governance narrative’ to the interpretivist-inspired ‘decentred approach’ which has taken the disciplines of political science and public administration in new, innovative directions. The second purpose of the paper is to critically assess the ‘decentred approach’ and offer a modified version that can be applied to the study of sport policy. The final section introduces part of an empirical study on County Sport Partnerships undertaken using a modified version of the ‘decentred approach’ to governance.