Governance & Public Managemenet - Essay Example

"The trend within the polity towards 'governing without government' is the produce of a society no longer being able to be readily directed or controlled by use of the coercive power of the state. This is necessitating a radical review of the role of the state in the protection and promoting of the public interest. This threatens the power base of the politico-administrative elite, which believes that it and it alone, knows what is in the public interest in terms of the provision of public services". Discuss. INTRODUCTION Governmentality speaks of great power and responsibility. It is governing not only in the political sense, but it also speaks of self governance. In this concept, members of the society play an active role, and to be able to play the role, members should be able to be educated and regulated from the inside. According to Seyom Brown, world polity is the global pattern of structures and processes for conducting and resolving conflicts and making and implementing rules" - "to the extent that enforceable laws or hierarchical power (in the sense of the capacity, if need be, to coerce outcomes) are factors in the determination of who gets what, when, and how." - "the world polity can be defined as the worldwide configuration of systems of enforceable societal relationships." (1996, 5, 7) Governing without accepting the real nature of the problem or governing for a different purpose such as corruption and taking advantage can be successful only for a limited time and will eventually result to problems. Unfortunately, the government once manoeuvres the society in ignorance, not understanding fully its nature and the essence of its existence of society and humanity. Rather than educating an individual to have a sense of ownership and be a more responsible citizen, the government is invariably authoritative which seeks to control but provide less motivation towards social effectiveness and solution to the problems. This kind of governing will eventually lead to the death of the government and society. It will be compared to a young wild animal in the forest which is picked up and loved from the start. Placed in a cage and feeding it, the wild animal just won't eat, curled up and die. This happened for the wild animal seeks freedom and can function well in liberty and comfort of the forest. TYPES OF FREEDOM The idea of freedom is very comforting and when the government authorities realized that the society can no longer be controlled by the use of the coercive power of the state, it gradually follows the trend towards "governing without government". Governing without government is seen as a concept of political freedom which is supported with the concepts of civil liberties and human rights. Most democratic societies are characterised by various freedoms which are afforded with the legal protection of the state. (Wikipedia) There are several types of freedom of which, various kinds are legally protected by the state. In a democratic society, citizens enjoy the "freedom of assembly" of which, they are free to gather, organize a club, groups or any organization as well as "freedom of association" where in, in building up an organization, adults can freely choose their associates. Slavery and discrimination is a thing of the past, and today, many organizations in countries have imposed laws to respect the human rights. There is now a "freedom from government sanctioned discrimination" and "freedom of religion" where in the distinction in races, age, gender, religion, religion practices and culture is now respected and seen as a normal part of a society. Discrimination in the society was decreased, if not eliminated, by the help of policies imposed by the government such as civil rights legislation, equal opportunities law and benefits. Today, citizens are now enjoying the "freedom of education" of which, parents are now free to choose any school that they wanted for their children to send to. Capitalism is also known as "freedom of enterprise" wherein, companies are now privately owned and decisions, investments and income will be directly controlled by the company. "Freedom of movement", mobility rights or the right to travel is a human rights concept which is respected in the constitutions of numerous Western states. It asserts that a citizen of a state, in which that citizen is present, generally has the right to leave that state, travel wherever the citizen is welcome, and, with proper documentation, return to that state at any time; and also (of equal or greater importance) to travel to, reside in, and/or work in, any part of the state the citizen wishes without interference from the state. (Wikipedia) Every person has several types of expression, feelings, thoughts and imaginations which have to be expressed and the law has granted the "freedom of speech" and the "freedom of thought" which is not limited to verbal expression but also considers body languages for these are the mediums used in asking, acquiring, receiving and giving information. There are important times when information needs to be divulged and spread out to the citizens and people around the world. Mostly, tragedies, wars, economic status, government and political news and other information are equally pertinent to the people. However, the existence of Martial Law used by dictators deprives the rights of the society by using the military power. This law allows freezing or detaining the activities which are deemed to be a threat to dictators by using the power of the government. Public demonstrations were not allowed. Through the "freedom of the press", the government now allows free public press. This allows gathering of information to be used as a tool for public distribution. There is this quote which says, "When there is freedom, there is responsibility". The society is not deprived to do what they want to do and feel what they want to feel. The rights to act, organize, talk and spread news are human rights protected by the government through the types of freedom. But every type of freedom has its limitations of which, when abused is answerable to the state. The existence of freedom means the power and the liberty to do anything legal and anything legal is something that is not violating the rules and policies imposed by the state. ROLE OF THE STATE The word "state" in contemporary parlance often means the "Westphalian state", in reference to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. In this sense, the modern state is an entity that enjoys extensive autonomy in its domestic economic and social policy, largely free from interference from other states and powers. A number of modern commentators have claimed that we are experiencing the decline of the Westphalian state as the principal actor of the international system, pointing to economic, cultural, political, and technological changes in the world, such as globalization and the emergence of regional and supernational groupings such as the European Union. (TheFreeDictionary) State is a group of people, occupying a certain territory and is being organized and run by the government which is independent to other states and have the power to enter into international agreements. The unique role of the state is being a provider, an innovator and a regulator. It is a provider in a sense that the state supplies for the collective needs of the society of which the society can't afford alone or by individual efforts such as bridges, roads, special projects for general welfare, education and many others. It is an innovator for it innovates and amends policies in response to the government's goal in improving the problem area of a country like the diving economic status, wars and riots or to improve unemployment rates. These policies are made to reach or achieve a goal. These are needed to be able to work out on the best possible process in administering legislative powers, duties and functions and most of all, policies are constantly amended to be able to adopt to the changing world. Another role of the state is being a regulator for it stands back to examine the issues of a particular policy and explore the possibilities through policy intervention to see how well these policies work. As a regulator, the state should reveal how government policies mainly affect the lives of countrymen of different ages and state of living. It also exposed what policies as well as the general public could do for a nation's economy, peace and unity. UNDERTANDING THE STATE Being a provider, an innovator and a regulator, a state as a whole provides public service. Its purpose is to protect the rights of the afflicted, supply the privileges of the chosen few, and preserve justice for the society. In order to understand the state fully, it is important to understand pluralism, Marxism, separatism and feminism as specific political ideologies. Pluralism is a descriptive and prescriptive theory of power in modern societies. (Politics Professor) It is a society principle of allowing a peaceful and harmonious relationship or existence of people with different races, lifestyles, beliefs, and practices in one society. The existence of people with different convictions and lifestyles in one society encourages the state to create a step-by-step process to be able to achieve unity and to agree into a common role and policy which should be applied for these members of the state without any exemption. In a pluralistic society, a state should impose equality without taking sides or doing favor for a certain race. Bias will create an unfavorable effect or reaction to the other group and will be seen as discrimination. Karl Marx influenced the existence of Marxism which is also known as a scientific socialism which had a great effect on education as well as influence the formation of communism. Many groups were appealed and inspired by the theoretical aspects of Marxism and adopted it as basics in politics and policies for it created an ideal form of freedom. This theory is however different and conflicting which resulted to political splits and reformation. The evolution of Marxism reached the point of communism which deprives human rights of the society. Separatism is defined as various movements of groups of people with a desire for freedom. It is disassociating themselves from a large political society. For this group, their primary goal is described as independence although the concept they applied had a different meaning from a nation's independence from their oppressors. On the other hand, it is commonly observed that the government is mostly composed and dominated by men. The theory of feminism fights for the rights and equality of men and women when it comes to social, political and economical aspects. It is a fight to diminish the discrimination of the capabilities of women. Feminism has many forms, but the holistic meaning of feminism to diminish gender bias in terms of physical, biological, intellectual and material aspects. CONCEPTS OF PUBLIC INTEREST Having concepts of public interest provides an impression that these concepts, if being followed, will result to a harmonious relationship towards the public and the government and towards co-individuals. But these impressions are not true at all for it is broad, unclear and illusive for it is very idealistic. Every individual have a much broader concept and infact, it is constantly changing for a society openly adopts a changing world. There are 3 common traditions of public concepts which are characterized by unitarianism, civic republicanism and the general will. Unitaranism is the belief that God is only one person and not three which is The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit. It rejects the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the holiness and divinity of Jesus existence. The concepts of Unitarianism are related to the political philosophy for the "freedom of religion" freeds the Unitarians from the ideal concept of the public interest. Unitarianism is a liberal religion with gives an open mind to the beliefs and practices of the society. This concept is seen as a religion but was related to political philosophy for there were certain countries that once denied and prohibit the existence Unitarians. As of 1648, severe prohibitive laws were issued against those who refused to accept the Trinity. Civic Republicanism is a governmental structure that varies a little from liberalism for it is in favor by the rule of the people and rejected the existence o of monarchy. This republican commitment has been defined in a "minimalist" way as a belief in the possibility of settling at least some normative disputes with substantively right answers (Sunstein 1988, 1541). The structure of civic republicanism is a movement that opposes monarchy and dictatorship for it has systems and laws which protects the right of the people's liberty from tyranny. The general will, first enunciated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is a concept in political philosophy referring to the desire or interest of a people as a whole. It is most often associated with socialist traditions in Politics. General will is what the body politic (community of citizens) would unanimously do if they were selecting general laws and were choosing/voting with full information, good reasoning, unclouded judgment (bias and emotion can cloud judgment), public spirit, and attempting to discern the common good. People should submit their will to the general will which cannot be wrong and whoever refused would be subject to compulsion, so to express the general will is to express every man's common will. (Wikipedia) These three concepts as a whole were drawn from the idea and interests of the public. In a sense, these three structures are governing without government for these concepts of public interest are self-organizing networks which existed because they liberated them selves from the binding laws and grouped together to follow the interest of the public and society as a whole. These concepts of public interest had liberated themselves to the binding control of the coercive power of the state of which, from the very beginning has flared up and influenced various debates and strict policies. The politico-administrative elite such as monarchy and dictatorship were offended for they believe that they alone know what the public interests are. This practice reflects that there are mistakes and discrepancies in political governing. PROBLEMS OF GOVERNING Public authorities were given power to rule and guide the society. However, some state officials use this power to fulfill their personal interest. The destructive activities were made possible by the use beyond the power vested upon these government officials. This is the greatest problem of governing. It is apparent that the state is now operating for their own benefits and disregarding the rights of the society. A criminal activity such as corruption which is stealing the money of the society is very visible, where politicians openly ignore their responsibilities as well as their sworn statement towards the public. This practice exhibits gross parasitism, malfeasance and criminality. There is also a drug related problem, where in the state fights to abolish drugs however, governments officials such as the police and politicians are involved in drug trafficking, buying, selling and using drugs. Public scandals of these government politicians also contribute to governing problems for it takes away the trust of the society to the government. Yet even at its best, when animated by well-intentioned democratic sensibilities, this position neglects to register the shifts in policing capacity that have already taken place, shifts that have significantly empowered policy networks and professional actors above the level of the nation-state. To this extent, it remains trapped within an - often implicit, taken-for-granted - framework of single, competing state systems; one that is insufficiently alive to the advent of plural systems of police authority across Europe, and ill-equipped to think through the complex problems of coordination, representation, transparency and institutional design that emerge - in a revised light - in its wake. (Pierre, 2005) One of the governing problems is the increase of taxes. It operates as a looter of productivity and is clearly existing to the detriment of the society. It is truly beyond redemption. It should be scrapped, disallowed from tainting any system that succeeds it. Either a true flat tax or, preferably, a consumption tax would greatly reduce the oppression of excessive taxation, and the ability of government to govern excessively. Here, again, is a problem we can never effectively address so long as the population is controlled through belief-ignorance and the manipulation of perception. Solutions do no come from politics or authoritarianism, but from recognizing and addressing the real nature of those problems. ( Allie, 1999) MODES OF GOVERNANCE Modes of governance vary according to policy fields. Its role is to facilitate the easy adoption of policies of the European Union for it is rapidly growing. The modes of governance provide a system for the pending members and the role that they are going to play. According to Treib, Bahr and Falkner, there are nine modes of governance in the policy dimension. These are: Legal bindingness versus soft law - This means that the norms are being prioritized and focuses too much on technical rules related to breach and how states can react to that situation. It is tend to focus more on disputes and how one can resolve disputes. They have anxieties about whether those disputes will in fact be resolved in a world where there is limited adjudication as well as limited enforcement. Furthermore, it tends to focus on states as actors rather than on private actors, resulting in an exclusion of civil society. Rigid versus flexible approach to implementation - One good example of the rigid mode of implementations is the regulation on driving hours of road transport. This uses legal instruments and directly applicable regulations although exemptions were granted as well. The more flexible approach gives the members of the state as well as actors the adaptability to a range of options where they can choose from. Presence versus absence of sanctions - The presence of sanctions gives limits to every action. It varies to the level of enforceability but everything that is not complied has equivalent procedures to follow. Material versus procedural regulation - One example is the military munitions rule and environmental regulation of munitions which establishes a program to regulate the handling of "solid waste." RCRA defines solid waste broadly as "any garbage, refuse . . . and other discarded material." However, the courts have noted a dichotomy between RCRA's statutory and regulatory definitions of solid waste. The regulations define solid waste as "any discarded material" and in turn define discarded material as "abandoned."74 Material is abandoned if it is: (1) disposed of; (2) burned or incinerated; or (3) accumulated, stored, or treated (but not recycled) before or in lieu of being abandoned by being disposed of, burned, or incinerated. Under the statutory definition of solid waste, material need only be discarded, and does not require the element of abandonment. According to the EPA and the courts, the element of abandonment in the regulatory definition of solid waste makes that definition somewhat narrower than the statutory definition. Only material that has been determined to satisfy the narrower regulatory definition of solid waste is then subject to RCRA regulation as "hazardous waste" under Subtitle C's cradle-to-grave regulatory scheme (Latham) Fixed versus malleable norms - refers to the more or less fixed and context dependent character of the norms included in a particular policy instrument. Only public actors involved versus only private actors involved - There are several modes of policy making which involves both public and private sectors, but there are also policy making activities which are assigned only for public sectors or private sectors. Hierarchy versus market - To a large extent, trade-off is guided by the relative efficiency of hierarchy versus external markets for the transfer of competitive assets across borders, especially intermediate goods in the form of proprietary technological knowledge. Classic trade-off between market and hierarchy has been supplemented by the analysis of hybrid governance structures, such as joint ventures to enlist complementary assets, especially low-cost manufacturing capabilities, held by local business partners. Central versus dispersed locus of authority - Is related to institutional dimension of whether the locust of authority is centralized or dispersed. Institutionalized versus non-institutionalized interactions - Decision making and policy implementation is not constitutionally specified thus allowing more flexibility. CONCLUSION Governing without government is the picture of an educated society which sees the rotten ways of running a government by the government officials. Through the help of education and constitutions as well as the freedom and rights which is protected by law and of the state, coercive power of the state is now ineffective. The state should maintain transparency, social justification, enactment as well as enforcement of rights and open communication to the public to maintain a harmonious relationship. The state is accountable for its power and therefore should be honest in running the government to maintain the trust and unity of the society. REFERENCES Allie, Everette. 1999. THE ORIGIN OF SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION: The Pathology of Cultural Delusion. Build Freedom [online] Accessed from: http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/origin/chapter_7.shtml [Accessed 19 May 2006] Bela, Mester. Winter 2002. The Connection between the Unitarian Thought and Early Modern Political Philosophy. 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Challenge Liberty and Security [online] Accessed from: http://www.libertysecurity.org/article208.html [Accessed 20 May 2006] Politics Professor contributors, 'Pluralism', Politics Professor [online] Accessed from: http://www.politicsprofessor.com/politicaltheories/pluralism.php [Accessed 16 May 2006] Sunstein, Cass R. 1988. "Beyond the Republican Revival". Yale Law Journal 97: 1539- 1590. Treib, Oliver et al (17 November 2005) Modes of Governance: A note towards conceptual clarification. 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