Governance

[k_a_nitz]

The latest post by New Zealand political commentator Chris Trotter has an interesting footnote:

The use of the word governance – as opposed to "government" – by liberal democrats is deliberate. It denotes not decisive power, but rational administrative process. Governance is what happens when the possibility of radical – i.e. system-threatening – change has been taken off the table.

This is perhaps the best explanation of the use of the word 'governance' that I have seen yet.

Comments

[jprussell]

That is a very sharp observation, and not a specific one I'd encountered, despite reading a lot of similar critiques of modern liberal democracies and their emphasis on managerial expertise over traditional political ways of settling things.

If you haven't read N.S. Lyons's "The China Convergence," it's a very good (though very long) discussion of managerialism and how it tends to converge on similar approaches, even in ostensibly opposed political systems: https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/the-china-convergence

Cheers,
Jeff

[k_a_nitz]

Yes, Lyons's essay is quite fascinating.