Melvin J. Dubnick
Queen's University Belfast/Rutgers University-Newark
&
Elizabeth M. Meehan
Queen's University Belfast

Prepared for presentation at
Conference on Integrating Governance: Linking Up Government, Business and Civil Society Monash University Prato Centre, Italy
25-26 October 2004.

Abstract: We view integrative governance as a varied response to un-centering and de-centering trends and offer a framework that highlights three 'paths' to integration: proactive, reactive and emergent. This frame is applied to Northern Ireland and we draw some preliminary conclusions about both the potential usefulness of the model and the insights it generates about Northern Ireland governance. The principal insight is that reactive integration tends to suppress the emergence of third sector alternatives while proactive integration has the opposite effect.

Keywords: integrative governance; Northern Ireland; emergence, civil society; third sector