Good governance has never been simple. The information on which leaders rely is hard to interpret; the outcomes of their decisions are uncertain. Modern communications technology only amplifies the challenge: an ever-swelling flood of information and disinformation makes it harder than ever to understand the world, while the vast array of connections that the internet has enabled increases the likelihood of unforeseen consequences.
“Technology and globalisation have enabled more people to make more interconnections and transact freely without intermediaries, and often without the regulation of central authorities,” says Mauro Guillén, professor of international management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “That complexity — because we have more moving parts and more interconnections among them — is increasingly complicating the job of policymakers and regulators.”
Given the quantities of data that are generated, exchanged or uploaded every day, it is a problem that constantly outstrips our capacity to deal with it. As the historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari warns in Homo Deus, his 2016 “brief history of tomorrow”, new knowledge prompts change and as we try to understand that change we rapidly gather more knowledge, which leads to further change. As a result, we become less able to make sense of the present and policymakers must constantly play catch-up.