What Is "Governance"?

The lead editorial in Mint today says that our Great Leader, prime minister chacha manmohan s gandhi, has "plumbed new depths." India is facing an "abysmal crisis of governance" - the editors say. This is the opening sentence:

If any confirmation of India’s abysmal crisis of governance was required, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh supplied it on Wednesday.

What is this magical "governance" that our The State is supposed to provide our society? Who are the personnel of this State who will do the job? Do politicians, bureaucrats, policemen, judges, tax collectors, customs officials, PSU chiefs, RBI governors, bureaucrat-professors and "teachers" provide us with this magical governence today? What, indeed, is "governance"?


Answer: Governance is fiction. There is no such thing. It is a dangerous word, full of Hobbesian content, which makes simple people believe that, without The State, there would ensue a "war of each against all." Hobbes was an ass - and a mathematician.


In reality, the Market Society is possessed of its own Natural Order. There must be millions of crowded bazaars all over India where millions throng to buy and sell - without any policemen "maintaining order." How does this order exist on its own?


The Market Society is all about "how to acquire desired objects." People in such a society learn from childhood that trade and exchange is the way. When doing this, they all observe the Golden Rule of the Inviolability of Private Property. Thus, while the shops are all wide open, no one goes in to plunder. Man is a "rule-following animal," as Hayek said. He added that the observance of these rules lies "between instinct and reason." In other words, while we have overcome our instinct to plunder, we have not reasoned why. Hence, we are a nation of zombies whose very Constitution violates the Golden Rule of the Inviolability of Private Property. Our "politics" is monopolised by socialist and communist "parties" whose constitutions are also violative of this Golden Rule.


Between instinct and reason, indeed.


"Civil government" - the term Locke used - is not The State. It is a classical liberal concept based on the Free Market and Private Property. The word "civil" lies at the root of "civilisation," "civility," and "civil service."


"Where there is no Property there is no Justice," wrote Locke.


Thus, with this socialist Constitution our civil servants of old have been transformed into predatory "bureaucrat administrators." The old District Collector - who took a tax in exchange for a property title - has been transformed into the District Spender. All his spending is part of the Capital Consumption our The State is engaged in. There is NOTHING he provides that may be called "governance." Not even a footpath or a zebra crossing. And property titles have been forgotten - even in cities, where millions live in slums.


The editors of Mint conclude that chacha's performance "does not augur well for the country’s governance." They contemplate a new bunch at the helm of our The State and say:

For the fact is that every new government that comes to power makes its predecessor look like an angel.

But these are not "government." These are all our The State. Everything is predatory. Tax, print, borrow, spend, regulate, legislate, protect, subsidise and "distribute the booty." Every State Government of this Federation does the same. The cities and towns are all collapsing - including Nude Elly. There are no roads. The State Police is predatory. The courts do not work. And Air India flies!


On my part, I hold that it is a very good thing that chacha manmohan has brought about this "crisis of legitimacy" that our The State is suffering from. I hope more and more people will realise that we will all be much better off if we abolished this The State altogether. This is a "good for nothing" organisation, predatory to boot.


In the classical liberal worldview, "civil government" (in cities and towns) exists only to preserve a pre-existing natural order. This order is "presumed." There can be no civil government if this order did not exist - and military government would be required. The civil government only preserves and maintains the pre-existing order.


So, avoid using the word "governance"; loaded, as it is, with statism.


And do contemplate the wonders of the Natural Order - the cosmos.