8.2. Governance Does Not Suck

Of all the topics that fall under the umbrella of community leadership, governance is one of the most important yet most misunderstood. In the traditional sense, we are all intimately familiar with governance: it is exemplified by the government of your country. Your government is the representative body that manages the nation’s resources and deals with its problems, opportunities, and current affairs. For most of us, our experience of government is the legislation, processes, and laws that define our daily lives, and those who perform this governance are the suited and booted politicians that populate our newspapers, television news shows, and radio broadcasts. We are all familiar with our governments, and we all have an opinion about them.

Unfortunately, opinion often points south, and governments get something of a bad reputation. It is easy to see why: the media is littered with stories of incompetence, sleaze, and self-interest, largely defended by toadying policymakers who refuse to provide a straight answer to a straight question. When queried by journalists, TV anchors, and researchers, it is not uncommon for the subjects of this governance (the citizens) to view the whole shebang with an air of suspicion: a government seen as fundamentally disconnected from the people. In a manner of speaking, it can be easy to draw the conclusion that all governments essentially suck.