1. An Actor, Game & Network Analysis of Decision Making in the English Regions
Sarah Ayres (University of Bristol) & Ian Stafford (Cardiff University)

2. The English Regional Tier
Regional governance is intended to facilitate:
Improved decision making
Policy co-ordination
Better management of resources
More efficient programme delivery
Key Questions:
Does the regional tier add public value?
What does ‘good regional governance’ look like?
Are there governance characteristics unique to the English regions?
If so, can these characteristics be used to develop a ‘Regional Governance Assessment Framework’?

3. A Policy ‘Exemplar’
Regional Funding Allocations (RFAs) used as an ‘exemplar’ of wider regional decision making
Research provides an in-depth analysis of the strategies & interactions adopted by regional actors in the RFA process
Criteria for good regional governance based on:
Government policy documents ( )
Key themes in academic literature
Policy context/guidance for RFAs

4. Regional Governance Assessment Framework
Criteria for
Good
Governance
Actor, Game &
Network Analysis
Koppenjan &
Klijn ‘toolkit’
Regional
Assessment
Framework
Government
Policy
Documents
RFA Guidance
Key themes in
academic
literature
Actor Analysis
Game Analysis
Identifies
‘important
questions’ &
methodology
Qualitative
(interview)
evaluation tool
Quantitative
(web survey)
evaluation
tool

5. Actor, Game & Network Analysis
Preliminary findings:
Actor analysis: Identifying actors, problems, perceptions & dependencies
Game analysis: Identifying arenas & network stagnation
Network analysis: Exploring interactions & rules

6. Conclusions Pros: Cons:
Offers an alternative to ex ante objectives & performance indicators
Provides a robust & theoretical underpinning to examine English regionalism
Cons:
Is the framework ‘regional’ (or multi-scalar)?