The Reading Warehouse

Today, the work of government often involves coordination at the federal, state, and local levels as well as with contractors and citizens' groups. This process of governance across levels of government, jurisdictions, and types of actors is called intergovernmental relations, and intergovernmental management is the way work is administered in this increasingly complex system. Leading authority Robert Agranoff examines intergovernmental management (IGM) in the United States from four thematic perspectives: law and politics, jurisdictional interdependency, multi-sector partners, and networks and networking. Although this is not a how-to book, he describes different approaches to IGM. Agranoff argues against the common wisdom that government has "hollowed out" despite this present era of contracting and networked governance, but he argues that effective intergovernmental management has never been more needed or important. He concludes by offering six next steps for intergovernmental management.