The WAGE New Governance Collaborative investigates new approaches to public administration, regulation, and law that arise out of efforts to promote international economic integration while, at the same time, preserving and updating distinctive national and local social and environmental protections.

Principal Investigators:

David M. Trubek, Voss-Bascom Professor of Law
Louise Trubek, Clinical Professor of Law
Jonathan Zeitlin, Professor of Sociology, Public Affairs, Political Science, and History

Project Overview:

As economic borders become more porous, traditional methods of regulating the economy, insuring against risk, protecting the environment, and providing social justice may become less effective. At the same time, new methods of dealing with these challenges have emerged which may promise better ways to create norms and produce public goods. "New governance" is a concept that encompasses various new techniques to maintain a balance between commitments to an open world economy and national regulatory and social policies; new forms of transnational and supra-national coordination and regulation; experimentalist processes that foster broader participation and stimulate policy learning; and new modes of co-operation between public and private actors. These techniques, processes, and institutions have appeared in many parts of the world, operating at many different levels, from the local to the global. Emerging alongside more traditional approaches to government, they introduce novel practices and outcomes that are not well understood.

The New Governance Collaborative explores changes in the operation of regulatory processes and environmental and social protection schemes in the context of increasing economic integration and new approaches to public administration, regulation, and law. The collaborative will explore the operations, effectiveness, and democratic legitimacy of selected forms of new governance and examine their significance for theories of politics, law, regulation, and public administration. The collaborative works closely with the European Union Center and the Wisconsin Project on Governance and Regulation (WISGAR). It also coordinates the International Institute Governance Research Circle.