Democratization and Demystification: Deconstructing ‘Governance’ as Development Paradigm

Abstract

On the threshold of the third millennium, there is a pervasive sense that fundamental forces are at work reshaping the world system as we know it. Yet there is much less confidence, on the part of either governments (despite their slogans of ‘managing change’) or the governed (still more herded than heeded), that matters can be controlled (effectively and democratically?) to achieve the public purposes ritually promised by political rhetoric.

As in every crisis, the present situation has elements of both despair and hope, of destruction and reconstruction. As Gramsci said, ‘the old order is dead, but the new order cannot yet be born.’¹