that external interveners neither perceive , nor foresee . North Korea , for example , has an extremely effective police force . Saddam Hussein and Mohamar Qaddafi both had extremely effective control and maintained stability in Iraq and Libya , respectively . Stability often translates as calm and non-violent to the citizens of a Western democracy , but to populations facing autocratic governments or predatory militias , it often has violent and repressive overtones .
Thus the focus here is on good governance , rather than on effective government ; and on security and safety rather than stability . Where stability is used , we should recognize that the word describes far more than an absence of violence . Using North Korea as an example again , there is little violence in the streets , and yet the country is economically fragile , and the society vulnerable to shock .
Government is the physical architecture of institutions and capabilities that come under the employ of a nation-state . Governance , on the other hand , relates more to the experience of those institutions by the governed , as it is that experience more than the existence of government or the effectiveness of institutions which marks the critical difference between fragility and resilience .
Putting this distinction into practice is of course easier said than done , as available and experienced officials tend to come from historical elites with no expectation that they should , or can consult with the broad population ; and populations have no expectation that they should or will be consulted .
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