Michael Chèze
Towards a better future
Mapping the forces of planetary change

DRIVER 4 - GOVERNANCE AND GROWTH-ORIENTED POLICY
Governance systems translate collective values into rules, incentives, and constraints. In principle, they exist to protect the public good over the long term. In practice, many contemporary governance frameworks are structurally oriented toward economic growth as a primary objective, often treated as synonymous with progress, stability, and success.
This orientation did not arise from malice or ignorance. It emerged from historical conditions in which growth appeared to deliver widespread benefits. Over time, however, growth became less a means to an end and more an end in itself — shaping policy choices even when its social and ecological costs became increasingly visible.
How growth became a governing assumption
Governance systems translate collective values into rules, incentives, and constraints. In principle, they exist to protect the public good over the long term. In practice, many contemporary governance frameworks are structurally oriented toward economic growth as a primary objective, often treated as synonymous with progress, stability, and success.
This orientation did not arise from malice or ignorance. It emerged from historical conditions in which growth appeared to deliver widespread benefits. Over time, however, growth became less a means to an end and more an end in itself — shaping policy choices even when its social and ecological costs became increasingly visible.
Metrics that shape behaviour
What governance systems measure, they tend to prioritise.
Gross Domestic Product and related indicators:
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Count financial transactions but ignore depletion
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Treat repair after harm as positive contribution
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Fail to distinguish between constructive and destructive activity
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Exclude unpaid care, ecological health, and social cohesion
When such metrics guide policy, systems become optimised for activity rather than outcome — reinforcing the divergence between economic performance and lived experience.
Short-termism and structural lock-in
Electoral cycles, fiscal pressures, and institutional inertia combine to produce short-term horizons. Policies are often designed to deliver visible results within narrow timeframes, even when problems unfold over decades.
At the same time, governance systems:
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Become dependent on growth to maintain stability
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Inherit legal and financial obligations tied to expansion
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Face resistance from entrenched interests
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Risk political backlash when proposing restraint or redistribution
These dynamics create powerful lock-ins that make transformative change difficult, even when its necessity is widely acknowledged.
How governance reinforces the other drivers
Growth-oriented governance:
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Stabilises the monetary system’s expansionary logic
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Normalises industrial machine logic through regulation and procurement
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Defends consumption-driven economies as a source of legitimacy and employment
Rather than counterbalancing the other drivers, governance often amplifies them — not by design, but by default.
Why policy reform alone is insufficient
Many reform efforts focus on adjusting policies within existing frameworks — carbon pricing, efficiency standards, disclosure requirements. While these can be valuable, they often operate downstream of deeper assumptions.
When growth remains the overriding objective:
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Environmental limits are negotiated rather than respected
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Social goals are subordinated to competitiveness
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Crises are managed rather than prevented
This helps explain why governance can appear simultaneously active and ineffective — producing continual reform without fundamental redirection.
Re-orienting governance towards real outcomes
Addressing this driver does not require abandoning coordination, law, or public institutions. It requires redefining what governance is for.
Governance oriented toward real wealth would:
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Prioritise ecological stability and social wellbeing
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Use metrics aligned with lived outcomes
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Extend decision horizons beyond electoral cycles
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Create space for sufficiency, care, and resilience
Such shifts are challenging precisely because they question deeply embedded assumptions about progress, success, and political feasibility.
What this driver reveals
Growth-oriented governance helps explain why:
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Known risks are tolerated until they become crises
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Long-term wellbeing is traded for short-term stability
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Structural change is repeatedly deferred
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Politics feels disconnected from lived reality
These patterns are not failures of individual leadership.
They are the predictable consequences of governance systems designed around narrow definitions of success.
Bringing the four drivers together
Seen together, the four drivers form a self-reinforcing system:
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Money demands expansion
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Machines optimise throughput
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Culture normalises consumption
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Governance locks growth in place
Breaking this cycle requires more than isolated reforms. It requires working upstream — at the level of assumptions, values, and system design.