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Governance as "juggling" -- Juggling as "governance" (Part #3)

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One constrained use of the metaphor is illustrated by the remark of Indian economist Raghuram Rajan:

Monetary policy is like juggling six balls... it is not "interest rate up, interest rate down". There is the exchange rate, there are long term yields, there are short term yields, there is credit growth.

As with the case of balancing personal priorities (indicated above), "juggling" is widely used as a metaphor to describe the challenge of responding to conflicting priorities in governance, as variously illustrated by the following:

"Dropping the ball": As with the use of the metaphor to frame the management of conflicting personal demands, it does not appear to be the case that any particular insights into the process of juggling in practice are used to clarify these challenges of collective governance. The metaphor is used loosely to frame the struggle deal with conflicting priorities -- again, possibly just by "muddling through" in the struggle to avoid "dropping the ball". Again however, although loosely used, when does use of the metaphor imply intuitive recognition of use of a distinctive set of juggling skills?

In addition to any sense of "keeping the ball in play", of particular interest is the experience framed by "dropping the ball" -- necessarily a common experience in engaging with more complex challenges of governing:

Such failure may result from failure to "catch the ball" or from failing to ensure that it avoids colliding with another ball in play -- engendering incompatibility or a "clash".

So framed, the existence of "windows" of opportunity becomes of great interest -- exemplified by the launch windows through which spacecraft are launched, such as to avoid the thousands of objects of orbiting space debris. How might "cognitive launch window" be recognized -- or those relating to any strategy?

Juggling priorities: Common to use of juggling as a metaphor, as indicated by the example above, is the experiential sense in which priorities are juggled. The priorities could be understood as strategic initiatives, preoccupations with problems, or cultivation of values. The metaphor is appropriate when the number in each case (or together) becomes a challenge to handling or coping. Greater skill is required as the number increases.

It is interesting that a very common device for handling such complexity is through some form of scheduling, typically requiring a 2D spreadsheet. This is of interest in that that tool was used to configure the visualizations described here. Given the timing issues involved, it is appropriate to ask what patterns might need to be designed in 3D and 4D, or more, as speculatively considered elsewhere (Spherical Accounting: using geometry to embody developmental integrity, 2004).

In general, and with respect to any form of governance, it is of particular interest to note recognition of juggling strategies/policies, obligations, concepts/categories, or factors:

One insightful articulation of balancing multiple policies, specifically framed as "juggling", is summarized in the work of Evelyne de Leeuw, et al. (Juggling Multiple Networks in Multiple Streams, European Policy Analysis, 2, 2016, 1):

This paper suggests a new conceptual gaze at theorizing the policy process. Alternating between practical, empirical, and theoretical perspectives, we describe how the hybridization of Multiple Streams, Policy Network, and Frame theories leads to a juggling metaphor to describe the process. From the initiation of this research program, we found that the information our research yielded was vastly more complex and dynamic than what is generally reported in similar research. In particular we discovered that dynamic interactions between actors in the different (policy, problem, and politics) streams, when appraised through a policy network lens, produce different network configurations in each stream. We also found that Kingdon's Policy entrepreneurs are likely to engage more in shaping the problem stream network configuration (through the process Kingdon labels alternative specification -- which requires great perspicacity with words) than in the other streams. We therefore postulate that hybridization of policy network theory with Multiple Streams theory would create a more powerful conceptual toolbox. This toolbox can be enhanced further by insights from network management conceptualisations and frame theory. Finally, we have embraced the criticism that has been voiced of the stages heuristic and proposes that a more useful metaphor for policy processes is juggling: those processes may appear chaotic, but keen discipline, coordination, and acuity are required for policy students and operators to keep all balls in the air [emphasis added]

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