Abstract
Abstract : The focus of this dissertation was on the critical variables that influences network governance terms of promoting good developmental governance. Public management within a network governance paradigm is seen as a way for government and citizens to manage public administrative and service delivery processes in a cooperative manner. The guiding primary research question for this dissertation was to determine how network governance can serve as a mechanism to promote good developmental governance. The dissertation focused on related contextual variables, knowledge of the determinants, theoretical approaches, concepts and trends that influence the role and value of network governance within the framework of a developmental state in general and in South Africa in particular. The research approach entailed the application of unobtrusive research techniques as research analysis instruments based on a qualitative research paradigm. Attempts to define network governance in literature, revealed that no single theoretical approach can explain the complexity of today's public networks and the governance thereof. A concept and content analysis of the term ‘network governance shows’ that, despite the recent upsurge of interest in network governance in public administration, few authors clearly define the meaning of governance network or network governance. As such, after more than two decades there is no scholarly body of literature on network governance.
M.Com. (Public Management and Governance)