Administrative models and modes of governance

At the beginning of the third decade of the twenty-first century, a myriad of interdependent and cascading issues challenges the United Nations system and world order. To conceptualize and decipher such complex interdependence for policymaking and problem-solving purposes, a social process model perspective building on a policy sciences framework is used. The chapter systematically explores a number of key conceptual elements of model building for global problem-solving: social process framing; the associated roles of values, human needs, and resources; diversity of “participants” and institutional arenas; “organizational goal” framing; the importance of contextuality, open-systems thinking and interdependence/dependence; and some example operational administrative modes.