Governability Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Governability can be defined as the capacity of governors to steer the ship of state toward its policy objectives. Policies depend for their success not only on what governments do but also on the responses of others that government can influence but not completely determine. First of all, policies must be framed within the limits of resources. Second, policies must be acceptable to those whose endorsement is required to turn intentions into law. Third, policies must secure cooperation from all involved in implementing them. If all of these conditions are met, then the actions of governors are effective, and the political system appears governable. If these conditions are met to some extent, then governability is difficult but achievable.

Ungovernability occurs when a policy exceeds the limits of resources, consent, and implementation. In extreme cases, maintaining order and protecting national boundaries are beyond the control of government. A government invaded by a stronger foreign army may be defeated, as happened to Iraq in 2003. However, the governability of an occupied country also depends on the support of domestic institutions and the cooperation of its citizens. In the extreme case of the East German Communist regime in the months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, ungovernability arose from the open defiance of its authority by East Germans who realized that their repressive government would no longer shoot or jail those who protested against it.

A Matter Of Degree

The capacity of a government to achieve its policy objectives depends on its choice of goals, its political institutions, and the behavior of its citizens. Obstacles to governability are usually matters of degree. Each condition varies from one area of public policy to another as well as from country to country. Hence, societies and political problems are more or less governable.

The realistic choice of policy goals is a necessary condition of governability. What is realistic is affected by resources. The inability of low-income countries to finance major social benefits on the scale of Scandinavia is an obvious illustration. Low-income countries often lack the personnel to provide high-standard services to all their citizens. Some governments lack the transparency and integrity to administer foreign aid without favoritism and corruption.

Within a developed country, the annual budget cycle matches policy intentions with the money at hand. If there is a gap, governors have the choice of raising taxes to make more money available, scaling down their policy intentions, or inviting inflation by increasing the money supply. Population size affects personnel. A rich but small country such as Luxembourg lacks the people to carry out major large-scale scientific projects, while the European Union offers small countries the opportunity to pool resources to conduct big projects. Countries with hundreds of millions of people can mobilize resources selectively to achieve major goals. While the income of individual Chinese is low, the aggregate resources at the command of the one-party government of the People’s Republic of China are very large.

The endorsement of policy intentions is more readily secured in a dictatorship than in a democracy. An arbitrary despot can threaten those who disagree with the loss of office, wealth, or liberty. Democracies vary in the extent to which institutions act as checks on the initiatives of the leaders of government. Federalism often requires approval at two levels of government. The separation of powers between the American president and Congress requires two federal institutions to agree. In the British parliamentary system, control of the executive and legislature is in the hands of a prime minister holding that office because he or she has the confidence and disciplined support of the majority in parliament. In parliamentary systems elected by proportional representation, government is usually a coalition, thus requiring the endorsement of two or more parties before a policy proposed by the prime minister can become law. This makes governing more difficult as well as more consensual.

Interdependence

National government is part of an interdependent system that determines policy outcomes. It can influence but not control entirely what others do. For example, the governability of the education system depends not only on what policy makers decide and the resources it allocates but also on what teachers do in their classrooms and how their students respond. The success of a crime policy depends not only on what the police and courts do but also on the behavior of criminals.

Government policies for managing the economy have always depended on the response of a multiplicity of actors in the marketplace. These include business firms, trade unions, financial institutions, and individuals in their roles as workers and as consumers. Government can design policies to promote economic growth and full employment, but success depends on what economic actors do as well. The increasing internationalization of economic activity has made managing the national economy into an “intermestic” problem, because the economy is much affected by what happens outside national boundaries as well as domestically. Public institutions such as the European Union and the International Monetary Fund operate across national boundaries. Major banks now have offices in New York, London, and Tokyo, and automobile manufacturers have plants on three continents. Each institution has the capacity to influence one part of the global economy; collectively, they create obstacles to any government being able to command and control what happens in the international economic system.

Interdependence is even more important in determining the consequences of a national government’s foreign policy; a foreign policy without foreigners is an empty domestic political gesture. In international relations, governments are very unequal in resources. Nonetheless, governability often depends on how others, state and nonstate actors such as al-Qaida, respond to the initiatives of the strongest powers.

To describe governability as a political problem is misleading if this is taken to mean that there is a solution. Instead, governability is better understood as a condition of contemporary governance. Challenges to governability have increased because the intentions of governors and popular expectations have expanded as well as resources.

Bibliography:

Dahrendorf, Ralf. “Effectiveness and Legitimacy: On the Governability of Democracies.” Political Quarterly 51 (1980): 393–402.
Keohane, Robert O., and Joseph Nye. Power and Interdependence. 2nd ed. Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman Little Brown, 1989.
Kooiman, Jan. “Exploring the Concept of Governability.” Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 10, no. 2 (2008): 171–190.
Mayntz, Renate. “Governing Failures and the Problem of Governability.” In Modern Governance, edited by J. Kooiman, 9–20. London: Sage.
Wildavsky, Aaron. Speaking Truth to Power. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979.

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