Ireland’s national anti-poverty strategy as new governance

‘Governance’ has, allegedly, taken pre-eminence over ‘government’ because of the concept’s capacity to ‘cover the whole range of institutions and relationships involved in the process of governing’ in a manner that ‘links the political system with its environment, and may complete the project of making political science more policy-relevant’ (Peters and Pierre, 2000: 1). Notwithstanding the diversity of governance scholarship, the term has become a useful metaphor for a series of recognised trends in contemporary government behaviour concerning policy architecture, policy process, issues of accountability and the role of the state.