Governance in Flanders’ regional policy: subregional platforms as development coalitions

Actively engaging citizens is one of the main objectives behind the emergence of governance in the policy making process. The former top-down approach characterized by strong hierarchical relationships and a large distance between policy and citizens, is replaced by an approach that seeks important bottom-up (local) input. New partnerships between non-traditional and political actors are formed in the decision making process in order to engage citizens.Since the 1990s, the governance idea has gradually become a central focus of regional development policy. One of the driving forces behind this... Mehr ...