Governance: Solving or Reproducing Inequalities

Abstract

Socio-economic and political inequalities in the world are not fortuitous. They usually are the product of inequity, i.e., structural causes that unevenly attribute roles, distribute benefits and burdens, and create skewed conditions of access to resources. Understanding the workings of governance—how institutions operate, how actors can exert power, and how allocation patterns take shape—behind the reproduction of inequalities is key to solving them. This task is particularly imperative in sustainable development governance (or any specific sector therein, such as the bioeconomy), where the promotion of social equity is a principled part of it. Drawing from institutions theory and studies on power and distributive justice, this chapter develops a conceptual framework to analyze how (in)equity gains shape. It advances the idea that short and long feedback loops link various elements of governance. Agent power configurations are related to the institutional milieu, as are the distributive outcomes of governance and agents’ material capabilities that, in turn, help them shape institutions in their favor. The chapter unpacks each of these governance elements to show why inequality is so hard to address, while also offering a lens to analyze and eventually tackle its “lock-in” nature.