Abstract:
Since the 1970s, replacing “management” with “governance” has become a new concept or method of public management.So far, what are the concerns of different countries in promoting governance innovation practices? What are the differences and consensus in governance? The article conducts a keyword network analysis based on over 1 500 research articles about governance published in 6 authoritative journals of public management in China, America and South Korea over the past 50 years, and conducts a text analysis on the core keywords of “governance” selected.The article shows that the core keywords of the three countries are local government, coordinated governance, local governance and good governance; management, government, policy and state; and network.The most core keywords can best display the differences and consensus.They represent differences of emphasis, scope and manner of governance in the three countries, and also reveal the consensus focusing on the local or basic level and advocating cooperative governance among them.Therefore, governance can be defined as a spectrum composed of possibilities of cooperation that stipulate the interrelationships of governance actors and the goals they pursue.China’s governance should continue to adhere to the requirements of cooperation, do a solid job in local or rural governance, build a cooperative network structure based on the introspection of cultural traditions and institutional mechanisms, explore governance methods based on contract and trust relationships, and strengthen the promulgation of policies and regulations to achieve transparency of governance processes.
