The governance core is not an additional pillar but a transversal framework that underpins and enables all five policy areas. It focuses on the political and institutional foundations required to steer a transition beyond growth, recognising that new policies alone are insufficient without reforms to how collective priorities are defined, decisions are made, and accountability is ensured. Today’s governance systems — shaped by short-term growth imperatives, fiscal constraints and concentrated economic power — often struggle to act on long-term social and ecological objectives or to resolve the distributional trade-offs inherent in transformative change.
This framework therefore sets out the institutional architecture needed to support democratic planning, long-term coordination and accountability to people, human rights and planetary boundaries. It examines how governments can define shared priorities through transparent and inclusive processes, manage difficult transitions — such as phasing down polluting sectors while protecting livelihoods — and allocate resources toward socially and ecologically essential investments, including care systems and public services. It emphasises that such choices cannot be left to market dynamics or technocratic decision-making alone, but require robust democratic deliberation and oversight.
The governance core proposes reforms to strengthen safeguards against corporate capture and to redistribute decision-making power, including through national anti-poverty strategies, participatory and deliberative mechanisms such as citizens’ assemblies, social audits and community monitoring, and the integration of the interests of future generations into public decision-making. It calls for reorienting macroeconomic governance — including budgeting practices, macroeconomic modelling and national accounts — beyond GDP, embedding multidimensional wellbeing indicators, and reinforcing independent statistical systems. The framework also addresses the governance of digitalisation and artificial intelligence, guarantees access to accurate and pluralistic information, and highlights the importance of building countervailing power — including community bargaining capacity and reforms to economics education — to ensure that economic governance remains responsive to public interests.
Together, these reforms provide the institutional scaffolding for a human rights economy capable of addressing poverty, reducing inequalities and navigating ecological constraints through democratic means.
