Partnership Governance in Northern Ireland Improving Performance

Citation

Southern, A. (2002), "Partnership Governance in Northern Ireland Improving Performance", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 87-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm.2002.15.1.87.1

As the title of this book suggests the contents are focused on partnership and governance in Northern Ireland. The author, Jonathon Greer, provides the reader with detailed knowledge of three specific partnership types that operate in this part of the UK. He postulates about how the processes of globalisation have resulted in a fundamental paradigm shift where partnerships “are changing the nature of governance as the state takes a less pronounced role in dealing with complex problems” (p. 2). Whether Greer manages to show how or why such a “paradigm shift” has taken place is debatable. Too much of his early writing draws on profound statements about “global interconnectedness” and social diversity and he even raises in passing the old chestnut about a “post‐Fordist” mode of governance. These initial pages are a weakness in the book that could easily have been addressed through a review of Held and McGrew’s (2000) work and it is not really until about page 30 that Greer begins to develop a critical consideration of the partnership approach.

The strength of this book lies in its empirical detail and the contents page provides a hint that this is going to be the case. After a basic “Introduction” chapter 2 is titled “The partnership approach to public policy” (pp. 6‐49). This overview of much literature about partnerships is not particularly inspiring although Greer does set out a number of conditions that he believes influence the performance of partnerships. Contextual conditions are the environmental background in which partnerships operate and might be, for instance, geographic or economic. Stakeholder or organisational conditions are particularly interesting because of the power relations to be found in partnerships. Autonomy, centralisation, threats and fragmentation are important stakeholder conditions. Then there are the decision making conditions which, linked to the former, are about the communication channels between partners and may seek to be consensual, participatory and collaborative. Partnership operation not only includes the strategic direction and vision of the partnership, but also is a condition that helps to establish the rules and procedures of operation. These conditions are well set out in matrix style in Table 2.4 (pp. 46‐7) and are used later on to analyse three cases.

The third chapter is “Public administration and partnership governance in Northern Ireland” (pp. 50‐72). Here the author sets out much of the context for governance in Northern Ireland. It is an intriguing aspect of the book that one expects the contextual situation of this location to dominate. However, Greer manages to describe this in a very matter of fact way that is both reassuring and frustrating. On the one hand we can see the move towards partnership in the region being very similar in nature to those in other parts of the UK, in Scotland or in Wales for example. On the other hand, the very different nature of political development in Northern Ireland makes the reader search for a hidden subtext about military influence that at this stage in the book is rarely articulated. In fact, throughout the book reference to armed forces is an undertone rather than explicit and those looking for an analysis of this type should look elsewhere.

It is through chapters 4, 5 and 6 that this book really provides a worthwhile contribution. It is here that the author provides detail to partnership governance in Northern Ireland through three case studies titled “The district partnership for peace and reconciliation”, “The local authority cross‐border networks” and “The partnership between the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Bord Failte”. Each of these cases is analysed through the influencing conditions suggested and outlined earlier in the book. In chapter 4 (pp. 73‐116) Greer details the Peace and Reconciliation initiative that was brought forward under the guidance of European Structural Funds to exploit the ceasefire arrangements of the mid‐1990s. In each of Northern Ireland’s 26 districts a District Partnership was formed to address aspects of economic development and social regeneration. Six district partnerships were selected for investigation and through the author’s attention to detail he manages to raise some important points that go beyond the Northern Ireland context. For example, he speaks of the bureaucratic guidelines set out by the Northern Ireland Partnership Board who approve action plans and often as a result of rigid bureaucracy restrict locally based initiative. He also notes how demands on time restrict the operation of partners who act on a voluntary basis; aspects of regeneration that have been recently documented elsewhere (see Diamond, 2001; Liddie, 2001).

While Greer introduces the cross‐border nature of partnerships in chapter 4 it is in the following chapter (pp. 117‐69) where we see the real idiosyncratic form of governance between parts of the Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland administration. Two of three Local Authority Cross‐Border Networks have been around since the early 1970s developed to address social and economic difficulties and pioneering cross‐border cooperation. These partnerships operate on a “transjurisdictional” sub‐regional basis and have recently been able to draw on other European funding through the INTERPEG programme, with at least one district (Monaghan) covered by the East Border, Central Border and North West Border networks. The dynamics at play in these partnerships are subject to the political tensions of the region and by skilfully using qualitative evidence Greer shows, on the one hand, how partnerships operate against a background of violence and, on the other, how individual partners learn to avoid politics. Although exceptional circumstances prevail, depoliticising regeneration is not unique to Northern Ireland.

Chapter 6 (pp. 170‐218) considers the “Regional/national transjurisdictional” relationship between the tourist boards of the North and South. As before, the value of this examination lies in the way Greer presents his evidence of the dynamics at play. He suggests that funding provided by the European Union and the International Fund for Ireland has added to the development of cooperation, contributing to and maintaining the partnership although paradoxically competition is also an aspect of this case. Time and again we see aspects of partnership working that go beyond the Irish context, including inconsistency in the semantics of development, the striving for “synergy” between individuals who may be competing for the same limited resources, and the difficulty of operationalising strategy due to political objectives and funding priorities.

The final chapter “A synthetic model for partnership governance and the wider implications of partnership for public policy” (pp. 219‐54) is the author’s attempt to bring the book together with a coherent message. This works reasonably well although it did make me wonder why Greer had not interrogated the literature in chapter 2 more critically. In this chapter the author notes how the volatile political environment influences the coalition building processes in local partnerships in Northern Ireland. He suggests the informal decision‐making process is a significant part of partnership development and believes leadership within partnerships to be important. Greer also notes how there are often wider goals to be aimed for, such as peace in this region, when policy makers encourage local partnership building. It is a pity that in this chapter Greer has not given enough attention to the evaluation of partnership working which, in my own view, is a problematic process. There is, for example, work in other fields such as in conflict resolution, environmental studies and studies on the majority world that provide some clues as to how the effects of local partnerships can be considered.

Overall, Greer’s book is a welcome addition to the research under way on partnerships and governance. It is limited in some important areas, specifically in terms of its theoretical contribution, but nevertheless the author makes an important empirical addition to the way we can understand the dynamics of partnerships and governance. It is tempting to suggest that this book can provide an example of such work in the context of Northern Ireland. For this reason those researchers interested in this particular geography should make every effort to read this book. However, those who are interested in the field of local and regional governance, in the management of economic development and regeneration and in political administration more generally will find Greer’s work, and particularly the qualitative evidence he presents and the way he uses it, as a more than useful comparative piece.