In his background paper for the Governments and Communities in Partnership conference, Mark Considine (2005) suggests that international change towards whole of government approaches, partnerships and joining up could be termed ‘network governance’. He characterises this change as both a challenge to traditional bureaucratic thinking, and a deepening of democracy.
My focus in this paper is on this notion of  democratisation. I will take an analytical and critical look at the extent to which joining up promotes democracy and challenges the neo‐liberalism and neo‐conservativism that have become internationally dominant in recent years. I will link theory and practice by discussing YP4, a trial of joined up services for homeless jobseekers in Victoria, Australia.