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Governance Through Metaphor

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Paper submitted a workshop of the Project on Economic Aspects of Human Development (EAHD) of the Regional and Global Studies Division of the United Nations University ( Geneva, 25-27 June 1987). Appeared in excerpted form in The USACoR Newsletter, March 1988, pp. 3-21 [searchable PDF version]

II Contemporary crisis of governance

III Metaphor as an unexplored resource

IV Governing metaphors and metaphors of governance

V Governance through metaphor

VI Envisioning governance in the future

VII References

Figures 1-8 (not included as of this posting).

Governance through Metaphor
II. Contemporary crisis of governance
Clusters of dilemmas
Fourfold principle of uncertainty in governance
Tools of Governance
Sustaining development: the epistemological challenge of governance
III. Metaphor as an unexplored resource
Metaphor: a keystone function?
Challenge for communication devices
Metaphors as a short-cut
Resurgence of metaphor
Models, analogies and metaphors
Metaphor and truth
IV. Governing metaphors and metaphors of governance
Root metaphors
Examples of metaphors in governance
Insights: From classical metaphors ('the body politik')
Insights: From corporation strategy making
Insights: From traditional guides to governance
Insights from the arts: fiction, poetry and music
V. Goveranance through metaphor
Phases in the metaphoric cycle
Modes of metaphor identification
Fruitful avenues for further investigation
VI. Envisioning governance in the future
Meaningful opportunities
Metaphor vulnerabilities
References

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Introduction

The experience of the past decades in designing and implementinginternational development-related strategies and governing the process through which they become possible is not especially encouraging. Major disaster has been averted but the early hopes are far from being fulfilled. The situation has become worse for many and the risks of major disaster have increased for everyone. Particularly tragic is the recognition that the international system of institutions is defective in its management of the development process, riddled with inefficiencies and lacking in credibility, especially in the eye of public opinion. This situation has just recently been officially documented for the first time for the United Nations system by Maurice Bertrand of the Joint Inspection Unit (1). It is within the constraints of this context that the economic aspects of human development need to be considered.

This paper follows earlier work on the challenges of collective comprehension of appropriateness and the special constraints it imposes on the design and implementation of any development initiative (2). The paper addressed the resulting challenges for 'governance'. This term has been resuscitated by John Fobes, former Deputy Director-General of UNESCO, in order to promote a reconceptualization of the commonly used terms 'governing' and 'government'. In recent remarks to a Club of Rome conference he states:

    'The concept of governance emphasizes that order in society is created and maintained by a spectrum of institutions, only one of which is known as government. By examining that spectrum at all levels of society, we can obtain a broader sense of 'governability' as it is exercised in policy-making, in providing services and the application of law. Order is certainly part of governance. But I believe that one should also consider governance, at least at the international level, as a global learning exercise. By so doing, politicians, practitioners, activists and academies may expand their thinking beyond the traditional concepts of government, of international organizations and of the exercise of sovereignty'. (3)

Those remarks have contributed to the initiation of a multi-year project on the future of world governance, distinct from the many previous initiatives focusing on world government.

Of special value in Fobes' remarks in his creative response to the complexities of the situation. He recognizes that the processes of governance have become increasingly complex and are no longer strictly limited to governments. He points out that the fact that so many individuals and groups, whether NGO's or IGO's, at all levels, want to 'get into the act' of learning, if not governing, is both hopeful and chaotic. It is for this reason that he points to the need to re-examine attitudes to different 'learning modes'. 'Learning, and learning to 'govern', or to participate in governance, on the part of citizens and their civic and special interest groups, have become part of the survival skills for nations and for humanity as a whole.' (3)

The focus in this paper on the use of metaphor in governance is one response to the recognition articulated by Fobes that: 'The stresses from social change that require a broader sense ofgovernance have called into play Ashby's 'law of requisite variety' (which may be interpreted as stating that 'the regulators or governors of a system must reflect the variety in that system in order to be of service to it.).'

The question explored here is that of the need to provide a sufficiently rich medium for the communication of complex insights in a world in which the possibilities of governance are constrained by the explanations and proposals that can be made meaningful to public opinion. The complexity of econometric and global models in their present form make it improbable that they can be of any significance to those who must justify their actions to public opinion.

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