Determinants of Governance: PH'6CHK

Note: Details of Spirals and their Trees are or will be worked out in the Frameworks sections of this website. This topic is focused on the architecture and specifically on the contribution of psychosocial pressures to meeting our Primal Needs.

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Reaching this Point

Here is a summary of material that has been developed and explained in earlier Topics in this section and elsewhere. It is the basis for appreciating the Tree framework explained and shown below.

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ClosedSummary of the PH'6 Control Diagram

Politics for «Governance»

It is proposed that an inherent biology-based rationale for purpose-RL6 is governance. Part of pursuing personal goals freely is a desire to associate and benefit from being a group member. Under pressure from autonomy, members expect liberty and justice while taking advantage of what their group has to offer. The resulting tensions and pressures generate the need for governance and this is handled via politics, which is the Primal Means.

The quality of politics in any group is a function of its maturation, which occurs by progressively incorporating values of modes derived from ethical choice methods.

Governance involves both fostering the exertion of power by allowing freedom, and ensuring control over those who exert power most successfully, so that the group and other members are not deliberately or inadvertently harmed. The more modes that can be incorporated, the more mature its politics, the greater the justice in social life, and the more the group can draw on the strength of all its members.
ClosedMore on maturation

In this growth process pluralism moves from a focus on a tiny privileged elite who may benefit greatly but contribute little, through control by certain interests who do contribute but benefit disproportionately at the expense of others, and finally reach participative pluralism with maximum realistic devolution, sharing of power and responsibility for governing.

No governance is perfect and there will never be a utopian society. Nor will there ever be absolute equality or perfect justice. However, a mature politics will lead to better governance, with more effective social solutions, a greater sense of justice, more genuine participation, and a reduction in evils like corruption.

The significance of the Tree is that it reveals a group's governance regardless of the current state of politics. It guides as a general map and as a personal tool.

The inevitable and desirable pursuit of personal benefits (i.e. self-interest) by group members is represented in the Tree framework by its base in the Primal Nexus. There is no option for you but to use your own power and autonomy to seek benefits from your group as part of politics. That is what the group is there for. If you refuse, you are allowing yourself to be absolutely or relatively deprived of benefits by others who are more active. Here, performance pressure orients you (KL1) and performance pressure is experienced in whatever you do (CL1).

However, the time orientation of individuals differ, and individual time differs from group time e.g. if the group is a community or society, then it includes future generations. It is entirely possible that the pursuit of immediate member benefits (or sub-group benefits in larger bodies) will harm or deprive later generations or be immensely damaging for the group in the longer term.

Small groups and organizations may fail or disintegrate through mismanaging governance. While large societies are in no danger of disappearing, their quality of life depends on a willing social involvement by citizens. For effective governance, Purposes-RL6 (i.e. policies, plans, laws) need to be ensured as beneficial and constrained by a general Willingness-RL7, whose psychosocial pressure is selflessness.

There is an intrinsic danger in the power of governance and it requires that the pursuit of purpose be brought under control voluntarily i.e. through the exercise of autonomy in various ways. Even when that has occurred, more is required—purpose must also be pursued by all members on behalf of others and the group as a whole, and that becomes possible from the pressure for selflessness.

In the Tree, the interaction of actualization and transcendence to enable all this is dramatic.

Given due attention to the Primal Nexus, the lower part involves Purpose-RL6 and requires:

  • use of actualizing pressures—in orienting the input to politics in regard to handling social goods purposefully
    i.e. certainty (in considering the rule of law), acceptability (in considering privacy and social obligations), well-being (in considering social solutions);

    but

  • use of transcending pressures—in producing a political output leading to a distribution of social goods purposefully
    i.e. selflessness (impartial handling of rules), understanding (in regard to individual interests and obligations), autonomy (for agreeing to or participating in any social solution).

while the upper part involves Willingness-RL7 and requires:

  • use of transcending pressures—in orienting input to politics to ensure selflessness
    i.e. understanding (in considering the social context), autonomy (in considering the moral context),  selflessness (in considering human needs);

    but

  • use of actualizing pressures—in producing political output so that the way social goods are distributed is constrained by selflessness
    i.e. certainty (in assessing the social context), well-being (in affirming the moral context), acceptability (in recognition of human needs).

This framework has numerous implications for the handling the politics within groups, especially in government.

Initially posted: 30-Nov-2013. Last amended 2-Jan-2015.