Week 6: Economy & Politics

12/6/2012

At this critical juncture in history, the development of more just, responsible, and effective forms of governance has become a vital imperative at all levels of society. At the level of the state, even the most advanced forms of democratic governance are losing legitimacy as a result of their cooptation by powerful interests groups and their inability to address the increasingly complex challenges facing all societies today. At the level of the market, corporate governance is viewed with growing suspicion and distrust as increasingly powerful corporations pursue narrow self-interests at the expense of broader social and ecological concerns. At the level of civil society, the governance of diverse organizations and movements is increasingly undermined as ideological forces and identity politics become sources of increasing division and anarchy. Furthermore, as a result of the complex interactions among all of these levels of governance, the management of human affairs is fraught with increasing difficulties even as the need for coordinated governance has never been greater. In short, in an age of ever-increasing social and ecological interdependence, inherited models of governance are unable to meet the immediate challenges, and guide the long-term progress, of human civilization.

Based on the statement above, the relevant chapter from the Macionis text, and your personal understanding and knowledge of governance (please see link above for more information), choose and answer TWO of the questions below.

In what ways can governance promote unity and justice?
How can we redefine power and authority?
How do we develop new models for collective decision-making?
How can we raise consciousness and empowerment despite the challenges that bad governance poses?
How do we build capacities for good governance?

***Your response (blog post) to this blog above is required by Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. AND your three separate responses to your classmates are due on Thursday, December 13, 2012***

24 Comments

Fabrice Mboua

12/11/2012 01:36:16 am

1. In what ways can governance promote unity and justice?
By its very definition good governance should promote unity and justice. According to United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, "good governance has 8 major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law." Following these 8 characteristics of good governance unity and justice is inevitable because if everyone feels included in the process and issues are clearly stated, and everyone has a clear and concise agenda unity is achieved, and since it will follow the rule of the law, justice is also achieved.

5. How do we build capacities for good governance?
It is extremely difficult to build effective lasting capacities for good governance because eventually individuals will have a difference in ideas and opinions than the group they are working with and eventually it can lead to friction. I'm sure it could work for a short stint if the characteristics of good governance was made mandatory within the organization and was part of their overall mission statement and was common practice. That is the only way i see good governance capacities being built. It will take strong individual efforts within organizations and buying into the concept of good governance, and understanding that reaching a common consensus is better than individual achievement. But seeing that one of the characteristics of good governance is consensus oriented, I guess people will have to accept that sometimes their ideas won't be utilized.

Franklin Okonsky

12/11/2012 02:49:57 am

1. Governance can promote unity and justice by making decisions that trickle down and help to encourage those who do good. Encouraging those individuals or groups would be done by implementing rewards or punishment, depending upon which is needed. This has to be started by those who have power though, because that is the only way to provide true rewards for those who are helping to support unity and justice.

5. It is hard to create good governance because of the variance of beliefs throughout individuals. The majority rules, but there are so many differences of opinion that generally there is no clear majority. This means that the decision making needs to start at the top, so instead of having thousands of voices competing against each other, there will only be a few. Once a decision is reached among those few, a culture change that promotes those who follow that decision must be created. Then I believe people will start falling into line, and once people start believing, they then spread that belief throughout the population. This is how I believe good governance over the long term must be done.

12/13/2012 02:29:38 am

I agree with you that it would be extremely difficult to create and implement good governance because of all the individuals and their individual views.

taiwoayantunji

12/13/2012 09:56:44 am

In my own judgement, arguments and counter arguments make democrazy work and enhance good governance and not make it difficult.

Richard Yi

12/11/2012 11:10:52 am

1. Good governance can help societies work together to support safer communities. Through good governance, people can help maximize equality and protection. Everyone deserves to have an important role in maintaining a peaceful community and creating equal laws. Our criminal justice system even uses jury selection to help promote good governance. Discretion is highly used amongst a judge who does not fully promote equality and justice. A new criminal justice system based around good governance can better promote unity and justice because people of the community will actually be able to have an input on their society, where their voice will be heard and taken into account.
2. We can redefine power and authority by not relying on lobbyists and interests groups to speak for the community. Most likely, some of them do not even believe in what they are trying to pass, but they still do so because they are paid. Also, law enforcement should work with the community in figuring out what their biggest problems are. Society does not feel fully protected because in my opinion, not everyone thinks that the police are to serve and protect. Some even believe that law enforcement use racial profiling to predict who the criminals are. Through good governance, we can help eliminate the negative image parts of society has on law enforcement and the community can decide and implement future laws that everyone will agree with.

sean simmons

12/12/2012 05:40:18 am

I like your idea about having police more closely tied to the public. I think they are missing out on valuable insight for potential prevention of crime by not surveying and including the public on how they are using their time or how they should be using their time.

12/13/2012 10:01:47 am

Police and the public should be working together and not the other way round. It helps to prevent crime and enhance justice.

Eric Pagdanganan

12/12/2012 05:46:34 am

that is a good illustration of two different perspective on police. Racial profiling is a big issue in terms of law enforcement.

Daritza Lahoz link

12/12/2012 11:06:52 am

I agree on you're comment about jury duty. Jury duty shouldn't be seen/ considered an obligation to society for most people. Instead, it should be considered more of a community service opportunity which gives people a chance to voice their opinion because it matters.
I also agree on your opinion about racial profiling within law enforcement officials. This is also why, in my opinion, jails are populated by a high concentration of certain race than that of another. Because government officials are "behind the scenes," and don't get to see how racial profiling actually affects communities, bringing issues like this to the table would help them focus on things that society considers more important and require change.

12/13/2012 02:41:13 am

Do you believe that big corporations influence the lobbyists and special interest groups, in turn giving them all this power and influence?

12/13/2012 10:06:47 am

In my own candidid opinion, big corporation, special intrest group and lobbyists are indirectly incharge of policies making which have a net effect on good governance or the emergence of a just and better society.

12/11/2012 11:38:34 am

Goverment can promote unity and justice by making our criminal justice system works for people(poor or rich) and make everyone play by the same set of rules.Collective decision making requires the participation of everyone and not just the elective representative. However, a perfect example for collective decision making is the on-going crisis in Egypt, a situation whereby the president gave himself some power and people are saying that power belong to the people and no elected representative can decide the fate of the poeple on major issue like drafting of a new constitution.

12/12/2012 05:52:09 am

You are right that involving everyone in collective decision-making can help to find common ground with different ethnic group in a nation. Addressing issues and finding solution to issues regarding to welfare of most citizen is one example of good governance.

12/13/2012 02:45:58 am

Involving everyone is definitely an example of good governance, but insuring that everyone is being heard will be very difficult.

Golnaz Athari

12/11/2012 11:57:20 am

Government can promote justice by providing legal services, as well as implementing and enforcing rules that guarantee all citizens equal protection under the law. Regarding to the high concentration of wealth and resources in the hands of a few, Social Democratic methods of government have been adapted. We can empower people through education and by encouraging them to directly or indirectly participate in civil and political activities.
Likewise much can be done at community level. Neighborhood co-ops and book clubs are one good example, such as the Takoma Park Farmer’s co-op.

12/12/2012 10:46:08 am

I agree! However, there are also many laws that people don't agree with. With this in mind, I believe that we should work together to ensure that all genders, races, etc. have an equal representation in the govt. I also agree that participation in such said activities would benefit every individual as they would be able to learn about everyone in the community and have a more understanding of everyone's culture/ language (if the community is diverse.)

Daritza Lahoz

12/11/2012 12:27:54 pm

In what ways can governance promote unity and justice?
- Promoting unity and justice in governance may include simply encouraging people to have a means of contributing to decision making to ensure that. Also a representative population of everyone in the country should be accounted for in order to ensure that everyone’s rights are equally protected as injustice would be eliminated.

How can we redefine power and authority

I don’t think that we will be able to fully eliminate/ redefine power and authority because we can simply become a society full of chaos if we did so. I believe that in today’s society we believe that there will always have to be an “in charge” / controlling group of individuals that ensure order. However, I do believe that we can change the concept of hierarchy to that of a society that is more collaborative and collectivist. This way, everyone will be able to work together to ensure that everyone was treated and protected equally under the law.

12/12/2012 05:38:59 am

I believe that power and authority can help stabilize our society in a way that you mentioned that it could social order. On the other hand, as we all know too much power and authority could hinder development in societies.

eric pagdanganan

12/12/2012 05:41:30 am

*it could maintain social order in society*

12/11/2012 12:31:40 pm

1. Good governance will help societies to work together by increasing participation of all genders. It can also promote equality, and protect civil rights by its citizens. In terms of justice, good governance can make justice system to work fairly for everyone.
3. Collective decision-making involves all citizens welfare in a decision by getting what certain ethnic, and racial group wants. I think that finding a common ground between all ethnic and racial groups is one of the best methods of collective decision-making.

12/12/2012 10:38:03 am

I do think that increasing participation of all genders would be the most desired outcome, however, I do believe that it would be difficult to do so. Seeing as the government has been dominated by men throughout history, I believe that this would make it twice as difficult. Women may (in my opinion) still be considered a "minority" or be victims of the "glass ceiling." Also, although finding a common ground between all ethnic and racial groups may be difficult and require a lot of compromising, I agree that it is a good method of collective decision making.

12/12/2012 06:01:20 am

In what ways can governance promote unity and justice?
Governance promotes unity and justice by implementing rule of law, means of transportation, public services, etc. If there is significant partiality or injustice, it just means that government isn’t doing a very good job.
How do we build capacities for good governance?
Vote. To my knowledge, there has never been an instance where a significant civilization of humans has not been ruled by an elite class in some form or another. God bless America, we have the ability to elect and impeach the elite class that rules us today.

Tyree Gray Wesley

12/13/2012 05:33:30 am

1. Governance can promote unity and justice by focusing on society and equality in our society, and what’s fair. If we are all equal and not divided by race and groups unity will easily form.
3. We can develop new models for collective decision-making by involving the people collective-decision affects the most we the people. Involving all the different races and groups we can really come closer to near perfect governance.

Tmerella

12/13/2012 05:56:10 am

How can we redefine power and authority?
We can redefine power and authority by analyzing what it means to have power and authority in the first place, and collectively coming up with ways to implement things within a society so that good governance can be practiced. can we raise consciousness and empowerment despite the challenges that bad go we can raise consciousness and awareness through equal education for all, people who are ignorant or uneducated can/may be easily taken advantage of, and if they are educated more people can work together so that bad governance won't occur.

Week 6: Economy & Politics

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