Across the world, welfare states are under challenge (or were never developed extensively in the first place) while non-state actors increasingly provide public goods and basic welfare. In many parts of the Middle East and South Asia, sectarian organizations and political parties supply basic...

Political governance in modern societies can no longer be conceived in terms of external government control of society but emerges from a plurality of governing agents. In contemporary policy making, governmental and non-governmental actors are interconnected in complex networks of interaction,...