The group ‘Executive Politics and Governance’ is a specialist study group supported by the UK’s Political Studies Association.

This group builds on various intellectual traditions to reflect the challenges of governing in the 21st century.

By Executive Politics, we define a field of study that combines:

1. • the study of bureaucracy (i.e. public administration and public management);
   

1. • the study of government formation and operation, thereby linking agendas such as the making and breaking of coalitions, party strategies in government and the more traditional concerns represented in the field of ‘comparative government’;
   

1. • the study of policy instruments, for example the regulation of businesses or subordinate public sector bodies, the utilisation of financial incentives and sanctions, or the use of information and knowledge in affecting behaviour.
   

1. • the study of different modes of governing, in particular in terms of supposedly non-hierarchical and network-based styles.