Governing Without Guarantees
Complexity, Digital Infrastructure, and Institutional Responsibility
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55763/ippr.2026.07.02.002Abstract
Contemporary policy theory recognises that governance operates under uncertainty, yet still organises institutional action as if outcomes can be stabilised through design, incentives, and constraint. Complexity theory and interpretive critiques have unsettled the promise of control, but have paid less attention to a related shift: the erosion of responsibility within systems that cannot be fully predicted yet remain normatively accountable. This article develops the concept of Governance Without Guarantees (GWG) to describe environments in which institutional action unfolds without stable causal expectations while continuing to generate consequences that demand accountability over time. The central challenge in such settings is not uncertainty itself, but whether institutions can remain answerable as action becomes mediated through rules, metrics, and digital infrastructures. The article introduces Responsibility Retention Capacity (RRC) as a diagnostic framework for assessing whether governance arrangements keep responsibility traceable, contestable, and revisable. Drawing on digital public infrastructure cases, like identity systems and automated welfare platforms in India and the United States, it shows how embedded technical systems redistribute accountability and obscure harm. The article contributes to policy theory by reframing governance under uncertainty through GWG, offering RRC as an analytical lens, and demonstrating how digital infrastructures intensify the displacement of responsibility.
Keywords:
Institutional Responsibility, Public Choice Theory, Complexity Theory, Interpretive Policy Analysis, Institutional Ethics, State Capacity, Citizenship and Digital IdentityDownloads
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