A nodal perspective of governance: Advances in nodal governance thinking

Abstract

For centuries, regulatory thinking has been inspired by the powerful story of a benign giant, made up of the bodies of people, beautifully depicted in the frontispiece by Abraham Bosse, with input by Thomas Hobbes for his Leviathan, published in 1651 (Hobbes 1951). This giant stands over a landscape that he rules on behalf of these people. In his left hand, he carries a crosier that symbolises his legitimacy as a ruler. In his right is a sword that symbolises his ability to overcome resistance to his rule. This great leviathan—whose contemporary incarnation is the nation-state—was conceived as being so powerful that he would be able to shape the wills of ‘his’ people in ways that would ensure peace at home as well as aid against enemies abroad. This story, told with much acumen by Hobbes, has provided an influential and compelling way of thinking about and creating arrangements for governance in the West (Burris et al. 2005)—in particular, the governance of security through the institutions of criminal justice.