GOVERNMENT v GOVERNANCE? You may think, what on earth is the difference?
Well, there really is a very big difference and therein lie a number of issues and questions that are plaguing our modern society in dealing with a bunch of serious, new problems.
The difference is quite simple.
Government is one arm or leg of modern society that derives its legitimacy and powers from laws and regulations.
The other two arms or legs are:
[1] The business sector that derive their power from creating jobs and paying taxes AND
[2] The not for profit sector that derives their legitimacy from serving the public interest without profit.
These three arms, legs and sectors basically were never precisely invented; they just came into existence on their own, over time. Therefore, exact distinctions among them sometimes are blurry and/ or porous. And, we must remember that were only talking about the three basic sectors as distinguished, for example, from the auto and telecommunications sectors.
So, the difference between government and governance is that government is SIMPLY one big part of managing our large complex modern society.
Governance thus is the whole ball of wax that we need to keep the wheels turning among those three arms, legs and sectors. And, when we conflate government with business and nonprofit, we tend to confuse ourselves and disguise some of the most serious problems in managing our modern society. Those three sectors also are all basically quite different.
They have their own languages, practices and cultures. They even often train their 'members' to distrust the other sectors.
And, when folks that wear a jersey that says 'government', they often think that they serve the whole public interest (which is the broad intersections of society at large) despite the fact that they may only in fact represent a tiny part of the much broader public interest. For example, the SEC can only influence the financial system through a select number of tools, therefore, they only can focus on and serve a portion of the public interest.
Therefore, governance is the overall process of integrating and managing modern society.
Now that we have established the difference that we started with, the question becomes--so what, what can we do about it?
One of the biggest problems that we face today is that fewer and fewer problems can be dealt with in one sector only. A nice example of a single sector solution (unless one counts citizens loud complaints that led to the response) occurred a few years ago in DC when the Motor Vehicle Bureau was revamped and citizens were saved endless hours waiting in line to renew their driver's licenses, etc. Multi sector solutions are increasingly common. Peek at www.intersector.com and you will see examples and tools used to facilitate those solutions. That process is new but is beginning to be more widely understood and used.
The crux of the issue is a notional 'space' between and among the three basic sectors where collaboration among the sectors is ESSENTIAL though often very difficult.
Imagine the molecules of the three different sectors being three different colors and then go further and imagine the intersector space filled with molecules of all three colors competing. Sometimes failing to help those molecules collaborate might metastasize them into a cancer on our society. Other times 'nature/leadership' may help those molecules to straighten out and get 'on the same page' to help folks work out their differences.
We face today at all levels of government and governance the challenge of getting all the parts to work more smoothly together.
An essential starting point is for more of us to understand the differences between government and governance AND to recognize that the intersector may the place to look for some systemic changes that may help manage the governance of our modern society.
Well, there really is a very big difference and therein lie a number of issues and questions that are plaguing our modern society in dealing with a bunch of serious, new problems.
The difference is quite simple.
Government is one arm or leg of modern society that derives its legitimacy and powers from laws and regulations.
The other two arms or legs are:
[1] The business sector that derive their power from creating jobs and paying taxes AND
[2] The not for profit sector that derives their legitimacy from serving the public interest without profit.
These three arms, legs and sectors basically were never precisely invented; they just came into existence on their own, over time. Therefore, exact distinctions among them sometimes are blurry and/ or porous. And, we must remember that were only talking about the three basic sectors as distinguished, for example, from the auto and telecommunications sectors.
So, the difference between government and governance is that government is SIMPLY one big part of managing our large complex modern society.
Governance thus is the whole ball of wax that we need to keep the wheels turning among those three arms, legs and sectors. And, when we conflate government with business and nonprofit, we tend to confuse ourselves and disguise some of the most serious problems in managing our modern society. Those three sectors also are all basically quite different.
They have their own languages, practices and cultures. They even often train their 'members' to distrust the other sectors.
And, when folks that wear a jersey that says 'government', they often think that they serve the whole public interest (which is the broad intersections of society at large) despite the fact that they may only in fact represent a tiny part of the much broader public interest. For example, the SEC can only influence the financial system through a select number of tools, therefore, they only can focus on and serve a portion of the public interest.
Therefore, governance is the overall process of integrating and managing modern society.
Now that we have established the difference that we started with, the question becomes--so what, what can we do about it?
One of the biggest problems that we face today is that fewer and fewer problems can be dealt with in one sector only. A nice example of a single sector solution (unless one counts citizens loud complaints that led to the response) occurred a few years ago in DC when the Motor Vehicle Bureau was revamped and citizens were saved endless hours waiting in line to renew their driver's licenses, etc. Multi sector solutions are increasingly common. Peek at www.intersector.com and you will see examples and tools used to facilitate those solutions. That process is new but is beginning to be more widely understood and used.
The crux of the issue is a notional 'space' between and among the three basic sectors where collaboration among the sectors is ESSENTIAL though often very difficult.
Imagine the molecules of the three different sectors being three different colors and then go further and imagine the intersector space filled with molecules of all three colors competing. Sometimes failing to help those molecules collaborate might metastasize them into a cancer on our society. Other times 'nature/leadership' may help those molecules to straighten out and get 'on the same page' to help folks work out their differences.
We face today at all levels of government and governance the challenge of getting all the parts to work more smoothly together.
An essential starting point is for more of us to understand the differences between government and governance AND to recognize that the intersector may the place to look for some systemic changes that may help manage the governance of our modern society.
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