Scheming Virtuously Author:Gilles Paquet Scheming virtuously is an invitation to subversion, but also a somewhat personal account of the displacement of the dominant governing regime (Big-G centralized government) by small-g collaborative governance, in a world where power, resources are shared. In this new world, the citizen s burden of office is clear: to be a producer of governance.... more » Scheming virtuously is the order of the day active engagement, imaginative problem-reframing, astute organizational design, and effective action within the bounds of the appreciative systems in good currency and beyond. Selected ideas from this book: 1. The introduction provides some explanation of the reasons why the conventional ways of thinking are not as useful as they used to be, why a different way of thinking is required, and what the foundations of this new way of thinking are. The key notions of process, design, and reflexivity are showcased. 2. Paquet underlines two preliminary steps taken in the 1970s to use systems thinking in the analysis of the socio-economy as instituted process: (a) a shift of policy analyses from a focus on goals and control to a focus on intelligence and innovation; and (b) the probing of the socio-economy as instituted process through an analysis of sub-processes (demography, production and exchange, finance, state, distribution of income and wealth, and ecology of groups and their motives). 3. Paquet discusses critically some of the key assumptions of the old way of thinking: the omnipresence of state centricity and the myth of shared values; the occlusion of the solidarity sector as an alternative to state and market; and the fixation on the elusive notion of leadership as a result of the assumption that someone has to be in charge. Three illustrations of how a collaborative governance approach might be used: the design of federalism as social technology, an informational approach to regulation, and the centrality of moral contracts in the redesign of the federal public service.« less