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Summary SOU 2013:40We therefore propose that public services be developed based on anew model that builds on life events and knowledge of the variousneeds that people have at different stages of life and that businesseshave at various stages of operations.The second shift in perspective concerns how we view governanceand how public administration creates value for people, businessesand society as a whole. Governance and the conditions forgovernance change over time. There are many indications that hierarchicaland more authoritative governance mechanisms are beingreplaced by horizontal, network-like and more egalitarian mechanisms.There seems to be consensus that governance has becomemore complicated, which should mean that the conditions for, anddemands on, the role of policy in governance have changed. Thenotion that policy sets objectives that public administration shouldachieve remains prevalent, despite all the evidence suggesting that itis difficult in practice to make such a distinction, and despite thefact that there are rarely any clear linear links between politicaldecisions and what ultimately actually happens in society. In ourview, the results in the form of actual impact on society frompublic administration generally emerge through intricateinteraction between people in and outside government agencies incomplex systems. It is therefore these systems – rather thanindividual agencies or bodies – that must be given greater attention,e.g. with regard to how the various parts interact. By gaining abetter understanding of these systems and thinking about them innew ways, we believe that we can considerably improve theprospects for future prosperity.A simple accountability model consisting of one singleresponsible party and one single party demanding accountability istherefore also an inadequate description of reality. Many publicsector employees see themselves working in various forms ofpartnership, where different parties are responsible for differentparts of a joint operation, i.e. a system with several responsibleparties.We therefore propose that the capacity to understand and managethis complexity be strengthened, for example in the GovernmentOffices. The system approach offers a procedure and methods forproviding new perspectives to social issues that are difficult tosolve; this can help to unleash the power of innovation.22