Evolutionary Governance Theory: An Introduction, offers the reader a remarkable
new perspective on the way markets, institutions and societies evolve together.
It can be of use to anyone interested in market and public sector reform, development,
public administration, politics and law. Based on a wide variety of
case studies on three continents and a variety of conceptual sources, the authors
develop a theory that clarifies the nature and functioning of dependencies that
mark governance evolutions. This in turn delineates in an entirely new manner the
spaces open for policy experiment. As such, it offers a new mapping of the middle
ground between libertarianism and social engineering. Theoretically, the approach
draws on a wide array of sources: institutional and development economics,
systems theories, post-structuralism, actor-network theories, discourse theory,
planning theory and legal studies.

Kristof Van Assche
Raoul Beunen
Martijn Duineveld