The Governance Gauge: Innovations in Government

We hope you enjoy this Wednesday’s Governance Gauge: for more reading material, you can always visit our reading list for more on governance, special economic zones, best practices and studies!

“Innovations in Government” is a series of combined articles curated by Sandford Borins who teaches at the Rotman School of Management. This book focuses on the various aspects of governmental “intrapreneurship” — civil servant-led changes in policy. Also discussed is a somewhat meta examination of the nature of governance science research, as well as several case studies on civil activation and public services procurement in established democracies. The tone of the book depends on the article’s original writer, and ranges from strictly academic to somewhat casual.

The book is split into 10 chapters, the most relevant of which are (in order of appearance): The Kennedy School of Government, Citizen-led gov. innovation, Brazilian sub-national government innovation and others.

Creators of zones and societies will find chapters 7, 8 and 10 most intriguing— this book is somewhat weaker in terms of practical applications, but there are several best practices to be found in the pages.

Policymakers and analysts can take a look at chapters 4, 6 and 9 — which primarily focus on government “intrapreneurship” and similar policy applications in British (Common) and Brazilian (Civil) systems.

Scholars and experts will find great insight in the book, primarily in chapters 3, 7 and 11. The scholarly crowd is where the primary aim of this book lies, and is an excellent piece for everybody in the governance studies sphere.

The book can be downloaded here.