Toward Re(imagining) Governance: Mapping the pathway toward more effective and engaged governance

In an attempt to analyze and categorize the different forms of innovation of governance, GovLab Research released a paper and infographic mapping the universe of challenges, deficits, and opportunities toward more effective and engaged governance. While the current literature on the subject often focuses on one particular transformation such as citizen engagement or open data, GovLab Research seeks to map, reviewing a wide array of sources, the broad terrain of innovative governance. We provide a map of the numerous interconnected components that characterize the field, as a means for organizing research, discussion and producing a common vocabulary. The outcome is by no means final and all inclusive. Instead we hope you will join us in improving the map by sending us your suggestions and comments.

The paper starts with the observation that we are witnessing a perfect storm of unmet societal challenges coinciding with advances in sciences and technology, and, if governance rides the waves of change that are currently available, we can move toward a better system of governance.

 “We have been trying to tackle 21^st Century problems with 19^th Century models of government. What we need is a new approach, not only to government, but to governance. Our existing models of government envision an elite group of leaders working to solve critical problems on their own, without tapping the insights, experience, and brainpower of the people they represent. We need to imagine a new system of governance, where leaders and citizens work together to solve the problems that impact society and our lives.”

To map this universe, we developed individual, but interrelated, entries for each of the societal challenges, governance deficits, innovations in science and technology, governance experiments and accordant paradigm shifts, all of which traditionally fall under the too-broad category of “open government.”
Each entry features relevant quotes from influential figures, a brief description, a collection of research questions and suggestions for further reading.
The paper concludes with a discussion of four dimensions of reimagining governance, which can help in the analysis and evaluation of governance reform initiatives.
We recognize that meaningfully reforming governance is not a task to be taken lightly, but it is far from impossible:

 “The shift from top-down government to reimagined governance will be an unprecedented change. But 21^st Century technology, combined with emerging models of technology-enabled collaboration, make this transition possible.”