Panarchy

The Panarchy website is at ttp://www.panarchy.com

Panarchy is a near synonym to my own concept of Peer Governance, and refers to networked governance. Paul B. Hartzog explains that his concept of panarchy is descriptive, while the P2P Foundation's concept of peer governance is also normative.

Panarchy/panarchism has an older meaning, referring to a system of multiple extraterritorial governments, see here and our entry on Multigovernment for background.

Introduction

Panarchy is the pattern of relations that characterizes and defines the next era in human civilization. The totality of these relations - political, economic, social - is what constitutes global governance in the next cycle of civilization. Mark Salter offers this definition: "Panarchy means an inclusive, universal system of governance in which all may participate meaningfully". (http://www.panarchy.com )

"Panarchy, and by extension this website, is not a normative model; it is a descriptive one. Panarchy is not a utopian vision, or an attempt to describe a rational or just world order. Panarchy may not be good or bad, but it is coherent and consistent. Like the Industrial Era, Panarchy demonstrates certain ways of perceiving and interacting with the world throughout its breadth and depth. Panarchy emerges from the analysis of broad patterns of change in the world, which leads to an understanding the dynamics of systems and holarchies. By applying those understandings across all strata of society, we arrive at a description of where civilization is heading -- thus, Panarchy.

Detailed Overview

Panarchy as Political Governance

Paul B. Hartzog at http://panarchy.com/Members/PaulBHartzog/Writings/Features

"Governance in Panarchy is characterized by the primacy of relational behaviors among governance organizations. Some of these organizations may be traditional nation-states, at least for a while. It is likely that nation-states will be replaced by numerous other governance organizations that demonstrate a better "fit" with their constituents' needs than do today's national governments. Numerous political scholars (Rosenau, et al) have noted trends towards micro- and macro- governance. In addition, governance is becoming increasingly transnational. Through these trends, the distinction between "governmental" and "non-governmental" organizations, particularly in international politics, will become increasingly less apparent, and probably will ultimately be reduced to the possession of military might on the part of "governments". As this function, too, becomes internationalized into a global peace force, even that distinction will fade." (http://panarchy.com/Members/PaulBHartzog/Writings/Features)

"What is governance without government? How does it work? Government is enforcement by coercion backed up by force or the threat of force. Governance involves voluntary compliance by the governed because of shared norms and values. Governance without government only becomes possible in an Information Age, because it relies entirely on accurate information and transparency. The key feature of the following examples is that there is no higher authority enforcing compliance. Rather, the benefits of participation themselves enforce compliance." (http://panarchy.com/Members/PaulBHartzog/Writings/Governance)

Panarchy as the next cycle of civilisation

Summary by Paul B. Hartzog at http://panarchy.com/Members/PaulBHartzog/Writings/Civilization

"Imagine an island in a wide sea. On this island lives a tribe. While the tribe is small it lives in a world of abundant resources. Its health is limited only by its immediate surroundings. It has a frontier, namely, the unexplored regions of the island. However, as the tribe expands to occupy more and more of the island, it eventually reaches a point where it reaches the finite limits of its environment. When this happens the tribe will begin to experience "closeness". At this stage, the tribe must undergo a fundamental shift in behavior, from one of growth to one of sustainability.

The tribe must remain stable and in harmony with its finite context until it achieves a technological advance, in their case, the construction of a boat that can reach nearby islands. The new technology expands and redefines the tribe's context, in effect, altering the relationship between tribe and environment. With a new frontier, the tribe can go into growth mode again, expanding to occupy other islands in its archipelago.

This process continues from archipelago to region to continent to planet to solar system to galaxy to galactic cluster to.... This alternating cycle of growth and stability characterized by punctuated equilibrium and driven by technological advance is the cycle of civilization.

This cycle can be illustrated as follows:

• Growth

• Paradigm Shift

• Sustainability

• Paradigm Shift

Growth occurs until the civilization reaches the boundary of its particular context. At this point, either the civilization reconceptualizes its relationship to its context, or the context will do it for them. This often happens in ecology as groups over-occupy their bioregion, over-consume their food supply, and suffer subsequent loss of their own population to reach sustainable levels. Civilizations of human beings do not have to suffer these shocks if they choose to enact a Paradigm Shift. The period of Sustainability which follows is characterized by the absence of a frontier and the establisment of a harmonious relationship with the context. Once a civilization achieves the technological breakthrough necessary to open a new frontier, then growth becomes possible again. However, initially only a brave few will attempt such pioneering, as did the American frontiersmen and the hardy navigators of the European age of discovery. As the frontier becomes more known, then another Paradigm Shift can occur.

The key difference between Growth and Sustainability is the underlying paradigm. During growth, because interactions among sub-systems are distant and/or infrequent the primary ontology is atomistic, individualistic, and object-oriented. By contrast, during sustainability, the members of the system are tied together in a web of interdependence and so the key features of that paradigm are based on systems theory, cybernetics, and relationality.

To return to our example, it does not matter if there are multiple tribes on the initial island (or multiple nation-states on a single planet). While they are distant from one another and interactions are few, their development follows the same rules as a single tribe. As they grow they begin to experience "closeness". Once they reach the limits of the island, they can effectively be treated as a single system, albeit one with multiple parts. At this point, reaching sustainability for all will require a focus on cooperation instead of competition. Since the system as a whole is threatened, all of the sub-systems are threatened.

Panarchy is the stage into which civilization is now transitioning. Having reached the limits of growth in a finite planetary environment, we must now shift to a sustainability paradigm, until such time as we are able to expand into the solar system, our next frontier." (http://panarchy.com/Members/PaulBHartzog/Writings/Civilization)

Commentary

Michel Bauwens: Related to my concept of peer to peer, is the concept of panarchy. The author of the panarchy website Paul Hartzog has a very similar positioning. However, where I differ is that it is in my view also a normative model, it represents a new ethos. And it is not just an automatic development, but is sustained and promoted by a sociopolitical movement, and is and will be fought by others.

More Information

Paul B. Hartzog's favourite essay in pdf format is:

Panarchy: Governance in the Networked Age, at [1]

His other papers and writings are here [2] and here [3]

Key Book to Read

Gunderson and Holling, Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature .