An Introduction to Behavioral Governance: A Fledgling Theory in Statecraft

Behavioral governance is a fledgling concept in the evolution of Public Administration toward new public governance and a breakthrough as for researchers and students of Public Administration, Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Law, and also public service providers. Behavioral sciences with an emphasis on humans as the main actor, agent, and client of public decisions at the micro level and the generalization of their behavioral algorithms to the macro level have enriched the vision, action, and character of governance and have also deepened the knowledge of governance.Governance, like public administration and new public management management, is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge due to the possibility of applying it by rulers to solve the problems of the real world.Behavioral governance while benefiting from all the knowledges used in the discpline of governance, especially neuroscience, cognitive science and behavioral science, and tries to explain human behavior at different levels of governance.This paper is written in order to articulate (new) behavioral governance as a neo-scientific field in the world. The documentary, investigative and argumentative research methods are applied, and by reviewing the ideas of the field after several semesters of study and discussion with Ph.D. students is an introductory survey to this field of knowledge.