The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties

by Christopher Caldwell

In the vocabulary of the nonprofit sector, the word “governance,” with its overtones of flexible technocratic planning, had replaced “government,” with its overtones of slow-moving institutional accountability. By 2008, “governance” was being used 30 times as often as it had been half a century before. Governance was more lucrative than government, and offered an army’s worth of leadership roles for meritocratic stars. Diversity mandates, set-aside requirements, and affirmative action criteria—they saddled corporate executives, nonprofit administrators, and university deans with big responsibilities. But they also assigned them a governing role that was much more a perquisite than a hindrance.