Print Email Facebook Twitter Non-enforcement as a technique of governance Title Non-enforcement as a technique of governance: the case of rental housing in the Netherlands Author Huisman, C.J. (TU Delft Housing Management) Date 2018 Abstract When governments systematically fail to ensure that a policy is implemented, while at the same time keeping that policy in place, this can result in a reality where certain regulations are simultaneously officially present but informally absent. In this paper, I derive from the case of rental housing in the Netherlands that such non-enforcement can be understood as a technique of governance. Here, rules on security of tenure, rent ceilings and maintenance are in theory strong, but in practice knowledge of these regulations is almost non-existent, and enforcement is so weak that the rules have become largely meaningless. Through analysing political and bureaucratic documents, and drawing on my previous ethnographic research, I argue that keeping regulations in place that are largely unknown to citizens and unenforced by authorities can function as a policy mechanism in its own right, as a method to secure and transmit the objectives of government in a more subtle way than explicit, top-down exertion of power. I conclude that non-enforcement as a technique of governance, previously overlooked by most research, deserves our attention, not just because of its effects on policy processes but also because of its impact on citizens. Subject Non-enforcementpolicy mechanismcase-study researchgovernmentalityrental housingNetherlands To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:74097a69-1d7c-4573-91d2-7979529bf785 DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/23254823.2018.1522263 ISSN 2325-4823 Source European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 6 (2019) (2), 172-200 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2018 C.J. Huisman Files PDF Non_enforcement_as_a_tech ... rlands.pdf 2.31 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:74097a69-1d7c-4573-91d2-7979529bf785/datastream/OBJ/view