Despite the many cultural and technological evolutions that have taken place in society over the last 150 years, our systems of institutional governance have failed to keep up. As a result, governments no longer have the full knowledge, resources or power they need to produce the results desired by their citizens. Everywhere we see a continual decline of public confidence in the ability of governments to be effective, ethical or even believable.
This lack of confidence has generated both the current populist backlash and
the creation of technological alternatives to government as providers of social
coordination. Without significant reimagination, future governments are likely to be even less useful or friendly than they are today.
This book takes the first step in re-imagining government: it explores the
nature of the current and emerging challenges facing governments, in order to discover what it is our governments should be doing to keep pace with change and to build the needed capacities to remain effective and legitimate sources of social coordination.