Commons-based Peer Production and the Neo-Weberian State: Synergies and Interdependencies

Abstract

After the demise of the New Public Management (NPM) and the rise of the concept of the Neo-Weberian State (NWS) as one possibility for the post-NPM Public Administration (PA) paradigm in Europe and beyond, one of the problems the NWS may face is that, while it takes into consideration the genuine lessons learned from the NPM experience, it may have a tendency to go back to a dirigistic, top-down, rigid form of governance in which citizens and government are the “other” for each other. This could possibly be ameliorated if one could combine the NWS with one of the recently emerging and most intriguing modes of political economy, namely Commons-based peer production. This alternative mode of production and governance can arguably offer interesting chances for successful PA reform, stressing the essence and the importance of abundance, distribution and intrinsic positive motivation for and within a responsive state.