In practice insightful analysis and laudable principles are elaborated at one point, only to be effectively reframed with a far more narrow and questionable interpretation at another. Whilst this may be good politics and good public relations, it does not invite confidence. It is precisely this tendency which has alienated so many from political processes in general, and from UN processes in particular. The difficulty is that the positive impression created by this apparent shift fails, given the track record of those involved, to address effectively the tendency to slide back into a purely economic, technocratic approach to development whenever possible. The report leads off with some fast conceptual foot-work.
Governance is the exercise of political power to manage a nation's affairs.
It parallels concerns expressed in other reports on governance. It also arouses the suspicion that, having recognized its limitations, and the progressive erosion of its credibility and resources, the intergovernmental system is anxious to associate itself with a system that is in a healthier state and which is seen to offer more genuine involvement of the people. Consider the definitional games associated with this realization. People's organisations represent their members interests, are accountable to their members, and tend to have participatory organisational structures. This strongly suggests that NGOs have none of these characteristics in the eyes of those who favour this definition.