Activists and academics look back over ten years of 'politics from below', and ask whether it is merely the critical gaze upon the concept that has changed - or whether there is something genuinely new about the way in which civil society is now operating.

Health promotion and protection for all citizens and health care for patients represent some of the most important policy challenges worldwide. Virtually every single area of life-professional productivity, cultural creativity, political and social participation, and citizens' quality of life-is influenced by the state of health at the individual and at the population level. But are current forms of health governance and health care services sufficient to overcome inequalities, ensure health security, harness technological developments, and cover future needs? The Governance Report 2019 focuses on health governance and the models and strategies used to make health policy an integral part of modern social policy and meet growing challenges. Health governance involves state, market, non-governmental, professional, and individual actors often working across sectors and depends on interactions at multiple levels-from local clinics to global forums. The Report traces the development of health governance institutions and actors, examines factors influencing the health-related decisions of individuals and policy-makers alike, highlights innovations both at international level and at the intersection between individuals and professionals, and offers recommendations to ensure that health care and health policy are governed to meet future challenges.

The promise of an ever-closer union that has guided Europe from the Treaty of Rome to the present time rests on the evolution of democratic governance to meet the many challenges that European communities face. Now after years of managing the financial and fiscal crises, the European Union has to take stock and focus on the issues that will fundamentally shape its long-term prospects. The Governance Report 2015 takes an interdisciplinary approach, examining what is needed to achieve stability in the Eurozone and the full integration of the European single market, how decision-making has changed, and how crisis management has affected the Union's democratic legitimacy. A set of governance indicators will trace how European states have become more alike or more different over time. Ultimately, the Report seeks answers to the question of what can make Europe succeed, fail, or muddle through from a governance perspective.

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-9 was the greatest economic stress test since the 1940s. It put not only financial markets and currencies at risk; entire economies and political systems were threatened as the GFC soon revealed major governance shortcomings and weaknesses felt across a wide spectrum of policy fields. Globalization seemed in jeopardy, the Washington Consensus of neoliberal policies broken, and democratic backsliding set in as populism and protectionism began to take root. The GFC triggered many responses to improve governance through reforms and regulatory measures of many kinds across a wide range of fields: most prominently in finance and banking, but also in fiscal policy, trade, labor markets and social security. Ten years after the GFC, the 2018 Governance Report takes stock and asks: How have countries fared, and are they better prepared to avoid or withstand another crisis of GFC proportions? To answer this question, the 2018 Report focuses on the performance of countries before and after the GFC. Using elaborate indicator and data systems, applying state-of-the-art analytics, and covering a wide range of countries, it offers a systematic comparison of governance performance from three perspectives: What public goods are being provided, at what quality and to what effect? How ready are countries to address governance challenges in the context of globalization? What are the administrative capacities of the public sector? With measures taken before the GFC and today, these perspectives on governance performance provide important benchmarks for measuring both resilience and progress and can assist policymakers in designing effective solutions.

Democratic governance faces unprecedented challenges across the OECD world and beyond. Enormous strains will be placed on states' resources and their governing capacities to deal with the combined effects of the financial crisis, climate change, and demographic change. The basic foundations of established 'statehood' will be tested. At the same time, the architecture of the state has fundamentally changed over the past three decades. The Governance Report 2014 questions whether governments still have the capacities to respond. The Report develops a framework to explore the administrative capacities of the public sector in OECD countries, analyses how these capacities have been used to develop innovative policy approaches to key governance challenges, and explores governance innovations to enhance governance capacities. In addition, the Report presents a dashboard of indicators that assess administrative capacities from multiple perspectives. The Governance Report 2014 advances the debate on the problem-solving capacity of the modern state in the light of ongoing and future challenges.

This Report is about the state of governance. Few would doubt that the conditions of governance have changed -- and continue to change -- as the early 21st century seems to enter a period of profound uncertainty. Yet, at the same time, the world seems alive with a cacophony of approaches -- old and new -- on how to improve governance and, ultimately, policy outcomes. This Report -- the first in a series of annual editions produced by the Hertie School of Governance -- seeks to address the implications of the current state of the world in terms of "good governance," that is, the effective, efficient, and reliable set of legitimate institutions and actors dedicated to dealing with matters of public concern, be it in the field of financial markets, health care, security, or migration, and across local, national, and international levels. Following an introduction that offers a framework of basic concepts and models, The Governance Report 2013 then goes on to explore a number of global challenges and the reasons behind seemingly lacklustre responses and highlight the need for responsible sovereignty; examine in depth the challenges of financial and fiscal governance with a focus on the trade-offs and ways to address them; analyse key governance innovations and their potential for success; and assess existing indicators of governance, while proposing a new framework for collecting, interpreting, and applying governance-related information. The findings lead to a set of concrete proposals on the way ahead.

Looking at recent developments around the world, it seems that democratic values - from freedom of association and speech to fair and free elections and a system of checks and balances - have come under threat. Experts have, however, disproportionately focused on the problems of democracy in the West, and pointed to familiar sets of shortcomings and emerging deficiencies. By contrast, and with few exceptions, there is less attention to assessing the numerous efforts and innovative activities that are taking place at local, national and international levels. They seek to counteract backsliding and subversion by improving resilience and consolidation and by promoting the expansion of democracy, especially in an era of limited sovereignty and, frequently also, statehood. The Governance Report 2017 focuses on those policies, programs, and initiatives meant to address the causes of the current democratic malaise, to foster democratic resilience, and to stimulate the (re-)consolidation and development of democratic regimes. The Report's ambition, reflecting its evidence-based approach, is to shed light on how to manage and care for democracy itself. Specifically, against the backdrop of an assessment of the state of democracy and enriched by cross-national, comparative indicators and case studies, the Report emphasizes solutions geared toward enhancing citizen participation and improving institutions in various contexts, including the rise of neo-populism. Going beyond descriptions of best practices, the Report also examines their origins, identifies the actual and potential trade-offs these solutions entail, and makes concrete recommendations to policymakers.