The initial perspective on the Future of Government (by Cheryl Chung, Lead Strategist, Futures Division at Ministry of Transport, Government of Singapore) kicked off the Future Agenda 2.0 global discussions taking place through 2015. This summary builds on the initial view and is updated as we progress the futureagenda2.0 programme. www.futureagenda.org

1. The
Future
of
Government
Insights
from
Discussions
Building
on
an
Ini4al
Perspec4ve
by:
Cheryl
Chung
|
Futures
Division,
Ministry
of
Transport
|
Govt.
of
Singapore

2. Context
The
ini4al
perspec4ve
on
the
Future
of
Government
kicked
off
the
Future
Agenda
2.0
global
discussions
taking
place
through
2015.
This
summary
builds
on
the
ini4al
view
and
is
updated
as
we
progress.
Ini4al
Perspec4ves
Q4
2014
Global
Discussions
Q1/2
2015
Insight
Synthesis
Q3
2015
Sharing
Output
Q4
2015

3. Mee2ng
Demand
With
Limited
Capacity
There
is
a
need
for
increased
government
capacity
to
deal
with
the
increased
demands
placed
on
the
state.
In
many
countries,
this
has
been
exacerbated
by
an
underinvestment
in
public
sector
capacity
over
the
past
few
decades.

4. Keeping
Pace
we
see
a
compression
of
4mescales
within
which
the
state
operates.
The
key
ques4on
to
answer
is
can
governance
keep
pace
with
the
changes
in
the
rest
of
society?

5. Outdated
Measures
of
Success
In
a
network,
the
state
is
but
one
of
many
stakeholders.
Without
economies
of
scale
through
centralisa4on,
common
market-­‐based
measures
of
state
performance,
like
efficiency
and
produc4vity,
also
become
less
useful.

6. Changing
Role
of
Government
En44es
compete
with
the
state
for
influence
-­‐
environmental,
human
rights,
and
other
ac4vist
NGOs
–
and
operate
at
many
levels
of
government
around
the
world.
This
new
dynamic
changes
the
role
of
the
state.

7. City-­‐zens
The
current
governance
system
is
not
good
at
taking
into
account
factors
such
as
the
preferences
of
the
non-­‐voter
(for
example,
city-­‐zens),
the
environment
and
future
genera4ons.

8. Hard
Choices
In
a
society
where
there
is
a
widening
gulf
between
rich
and
poor,
the
rich
may
live
increasingly
separate
lives
and
provide
for
their
own
“public
services”.

9. Enabling
Scale
The
poten4al
for
greater
collabora4on
…
creates
a
specific
role
for
the
state
in
the
network
to
iden4fy
successful
ideas
and
scale
them,
leveraging
its
resources
to
augment
the
delivery
of
public
services.

10. Par2cipatory
Government
One
of
the
ways
that
the
state
can
legi4mize
itself
to
its
cons4tuents
might
be
to
facilitate
the
building
of
rela4onships
with
the
people
and
other
sectors
to
co-­‐provide
solu4ons
to
problems.

11. Closing
the
Inequality
Gap
One
of
the
challenges
facing
the
state
is
how
to
balance
equity
and
autonomy.
A
centralised
system
is
ocen
viewed
to
be
more
equitable
at
the
expense
of
autonomy.

12. A
New
Opera2ng
Environment
The
influence
of
non-­‐state
actors
has
expanded.
Jurisdic4on
has
grown
beyond
boundaries
and
technological
change
has
outpaced
society.
The
role
of
the
state
has
had
to
evolve
and
to
succeed
in
this
new
opera4ng
environment

13. Public-­‐Private
City
Partnerships
To
collec4vely
address
major
urban
challenges,
as
shown
by
Medellin
in
Colombia,
governments
increasingly
openly
collaborate
with
business
to
improve
the
ins4tu4onal
fabric
of
ci4es
as
well
as
core
infrastructure.

14. Societal
Stra2fica2on
Inequality
gaps
persist
between
/
within
countries.
This
leads
to
a
stra4fica4on
of
society
and
greater
poten4al
for
forced
disloca4on
among
the
disenfranchised
and,
in
some
cases,
violent
acts
of
revolt.

15. Life-­‐long
Learning
Educa4on
is
a
high
priority
for
all
na4ons
to
remain
compe44ve
in
a
global
market
place:
It
is
increasingly
available
on
line.
Widespread
internet
access
allows
governments
to
make
life-­‐long
learning
available
for
those
who
want
it.

16. In
Control
of
Happiness
We
see
measures
of
self-­‐actualisa4on
developing
which
are
based
on
happiness
and
balance
in
life.
These
are
dictated
by
individuals
and
not
limited
by
external
circumstances.

17. The
Influence
/
Need
Gap
People
dependent
on
the
provisions
of
government
are
not
those
who
pay
or
influence
decisions
taken.
As
the
inequality
gap
grows,
those
making
decisions
are
increasingly
out
of
touch
with
society’s
real
needs.

18. Future
Agenda
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