ABSTRACT
The world’s most powerful countries don’t set the best examples of government, and some world leaders have behaved poorly. We need to look more widely with open minds, then, for new ideas from diverse forms of government. This book asks what government is, why we have it and why it’s so perplexing. It addresses a crisis of representative government, more than of democracy. The global financial crisis of 2008 undermined neoliberal policy orthodoxy, as governments intervened with large bailouts. Meanwhile, China’s one-party state rose to superpower status. More profound challenges came from Nature herself, at the levels of global climate and microbiology. The pandemic of 2020 changed the perceived obligations, limits and methods of government. Climate-related disasters make us rethink economic production and consumption. Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence, moreover, are creating new problems for lawmakers and changing the means and scope of government. Corrupt and authoritarian leaders are flourishing, surveyed trust in government and satisfaction with democracy have been declining. Hence, ethical leadership, effective policymaking and reliable public services are more essential than ever. It’s time to reconsider government and how we do it, and to ask how trustworthy leadership and competent administration could be restored.
