Abstract
Historians and political scientists alike have confirmed a decline in inter and intra state violence. There is broad consensus regarding this decline. The world never will be perfectly safe, but many correlates of violence are known and therefore it is possible to manage safety and security. War, is neither a fate of nature nor a whim of Gods. In this chapter the relation of governance and safety and security is studied. Therefore, we look at the interplay of agency and the opportunity structure, or the interplay between the governance triad and the governance opportunity structure. In more plain words, one should study the tensions between actors within the context of the historically grown structure. This structure restricts action and the degrees of freedom to human action but it is also an enabler. It enables actors to realize their objectives within the limits of political feasibility and these limits are in fact a balancing act. Governance develops from the tensions between actors and the interplay of these tensions with the dimensions of the opportunity structure and governance in its turn is correlated with a decline of violence. To understand the mechanism at work better we should look more closely into the dimensions of this opportunity structure and study how the monopoly of violence and taxation, the rule of law and the moral order contributes to safety and security. The chapter concludes that although in general governance is on the rise, and violence is declining, serious challenges will have to be dealt with.
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Notes
- 1.
Huizinga 1997.
- 2.
Bovens et al. 2012, pp. 24–35; these characteristics of good governance are well described, well documented, and widely accepted. Many sources refer to these characteristics. Moreover, many data banks have been compiled that present a clear overview. One of the most comprehensive is the data bank from the World Bank that gives specifics for all characteristics (indicators) of good governance, http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.aspx#reports.
- 3.
Sheehan 2006.
- 4.
In Melville’s Moby Dick the sperm whale is respectfully referred to as the ‘Leviathan’. Some translations of the bible mention the Leviathan to be a gigantic sea crocodile. The metaphor of the state being a monstrous construction is evident.
- 5.
Hobbes 1996, Chap. 17; the power of the state is absolute, and in Hobbes view the individual must obey except when his life is threatened by the state. So in life threatening situations Hobbes sets the limits to the power of the state. This actually still is a modern thought, because nowadays we would emphasize the integrity of the human body and human mind..
- 6.
Giddens 1985.
- 7.
Petterson and Bjornskau 2015, p. 167.
- 8.
- 9.
Weber 1979.
- 10.
Bröckling 2010.
- 11.
Simmel 1908.
- 12.
Elias 2012, pp. 123–128.
- 13.
Elias 2000.
- 14.
Elias 2007, p. 40.
- 15.
Moelker et al. 2009, pp. 15–40.
- 16.
Kilcullen 2009, pp. 80, 82.
- 17.
Swaan 2015.
- 18.
Morris 2014.
- 19.
Tilly 1975, p. 42.
- 20.
Azar Gat 2006.
- 21.
Weber 1979.
- 22.
Swaan 1988, p. 3.
- 23.
Pinker 2011.
- 24.
Pinker 2016, pp. 2–3.
- 25.
Mennell 2007.
- 26.
Pinker 2016, p. 13.
- 27.
Mann 2005.
- 28.
Pinker 2011, pp. 338–340.
- 29.
Goldsteijn 2011.
- 30.
Moelker et al. 2009.
- 31.
The clergy in the resulting governance triad was part of the figuration because religious men were literate and could write laws; Weber 1979 shows that the professional civil servants originated from this position as soon as the clergy was replaced by lawyers and other academics.
- 32.
Winslow et al. 2013.
- 33.
Aslund 2008.
- 34.
- 35.
Napoleoni 2015, p. 47.
- 36.
- 37.
Lubberman-Schrotenboer 2014.
- 38.
Freud 2016.
- 39.
- 40.
Rock 2007, p. 32.
- 41.
Voorhoeve 2007, p. 11.
- 42.
Voorhoeve 2007, p. 91.
- 43.
Reno 1999.
- 44.
Schleckener 2009.
- 45.
Campbell 2012.
- 46.
Campbell 2012.
- 47.
- 48.
Neuteboom 2014.
- 49.
Foucault 1991.
- 50.
Foucault 1991, pp. 102–103.
- 51.
Elias 2000.
- 52.
Source is AD, http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2015/12/31/aantal-moorden-in-2015-in-nederland-afgenomen; Trends are downward disregarding the source; CBS reported 144 homicides in 2014 (AD reported 135 in 2014), http://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/menu/themas/gezondheid-welzijn/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2015/ruim-helft-van-vermoorde-vrouwen-door-ex-of-partner-omgebracht.htm.
- 53.
Collins 2008.
- 54.
Grossman 1995.
- 55.
Sookermany et al. 2015.
- 56.
- 57.
Breander 2015.
- 58.
Most interestingly and most complex, governmentality enables us to control the de-controlling of emotions. We can let go albeit in a controlled manner, Wouters 2007.
- 59.
Verweijen 2015.
- 60.
Schiff 2012, p. 323.
- 61.
De Swaan 2015, p. 1.
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Moelker, R. (2016). Governance and the Decline of Violence. In: Beeres, R., Bakx, G., de Waard, E., Rietjens, S. (eds) NL ARMS Netherlands Annual Review of Military Studies 2016. NL ARMS. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-135-7_12
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