2
The Political Returns of Democratic Governance
this form of local rebellion also appeared some years later in Hispanic
America against the Spanish Crown.
What Kind of Governance?
The wider institutional matrix that was only hinted at by the Magna
Carta has blossomed in the early part of the 21st century into a discourse
highlighting a somewhat simpler language yet no less significant focus –
the people versus government. In fact, the discontinuities are not new;
whether today or in 13
th
century Britain the general citizen conception
of authority and government is usually that it is big and distant. A
focus section of
The Economist
, “Taming Leviathan,” summarized the
situation plainly: almost everywhere today, the state is big, inefficient
and broke.
2
Somewhat startlingly, it then quotes a Chinese bureaucrat
who suggests that “we are in a transition from a big state to a small
state, and from a small society to a big society.” She notes that the
relationship between government and civil society has changed from
that between master and servant to a need to become a “partnership”
between people and government. It is a significant observation coming
from an autocratic society. This also highlights the challenges for those
in the business of promoting governance programs.
The epithet good is often attached to governance in a clear reference
to a qualitative feature of what is expected – but not always provided
by government. This draws attention to the competency, effectiveness,
and capacity of benefits and services provided to citizens. In its
contemporary context governance also assumes the existence of a
network of institutional relationships that make it possible for citizens
and government to entertain a dialogue regarding specific preferences,
not just policies. And recent experience points to the notion that
citizens, motivated by knowledge of local issues and likelihood of being
the preferred beneficiaries, are often efficient partners to government;
this in part explains the observation above by the Chinese bureaucrat
and her notions of public-private citizen partnership. But this also
implies that if governance is primarily defined in terms of the efficient
use of human citizen capital jointly with the state, the procedural
