A recent survey by the World EconomicForum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils rated government lower than eitherbusiness or media in its ability to respond to global challenges. On one level,this is understandable, given the plethora of challenges that governments faceand the lack of long-term solutions to many problems that demand one. But, onanother level, the attempt to rate government alongside business and the mediais fundamentally misguided: no sector operates at the scale of responsibility,accountability, and expectation that governments do.

Businessdecides for itself where to invest and grow. Media indulge themselves in afast-moving news cycle. Government enjoys neither luxury. It cannot simply pack up and move on whenit faces a loss or is bored with a story. Government must stay put – and must oftenclean up the messes left behind by those who do not. On a good day, it may evenget to make improvements.

The problemfor governments, more often than not, is that in attempting to respond to andreconcile often conflicting individual, family, and national needs, theirability to deliver results efficiently and effectively has declined. As aresult, trust in government has plummeted.

Just beforethe WEF’s Summiton the Global Agenda in Abu Dhabi last month, I spent a week in India. Mostof the people with whom I spoke complained endlessly about governmentshortcomings. Government at both the federal and state levels was invariablyregarded as slow, indecisive, corrupt, unimaginative, and shortsighted – ingeneral, worthless.

It is easy forbusiness to want government just to get out of the way, and for the media to point fingers andsensationalize events without much depth of analysis – or even, sometimes,grasp of reality. True, India may not be the best advertisement for democracyin some respects, given how hard it often seems there to make long-termdecisions and implement them without being buffeted – and frequently derailed – by volatilepublic opinion and hard-nosedvested interests.

But thealternative – rule not by law but by dictatorship – is a far nastier prospect.And there are not many problems in India’s governance that state funding ofpolitics could not solve. After all, when serving a vast democracy requiresnon-stop electioneering, and politicians are thus dependent on financialdonations, governance is bound to go awry.

Governments’ability to respond to global challenges is a more general problem.Globalization – the breaking down of national boundaries and the integration ofeconomies across continents – has resulted in burgeoning demands on governmentsat the same time that their ability to provide answers has been reduced. Inother words, demand for government is exceeding supply.

Globalizationhas made many people feel more insecure and in need of government support tocope with the pressures on their livelihoods and quality of life. But most ofthe policy responses needed to meet people’s demand for greater security arebeyond the scope and reach of national governments, especially when thesegovernments are trying to cope on their own.

That is why,long ago, European countries saw the sense in pooling their weight and reachthrough the European Union. Imperfect as the EU is, it still represents thebest response to globalization yet seen among any extended group of countries. Governmentsworking together are better than governments working separately – or, worse,against one another.

We live in anincreasingly multipolar world, in which major emerging economies and theirpopulous societies are transforming the international landscape. But, at thesame time, multilateral frameworks are in decline, undermining the ability tobring sense and coherence to this world.

Consider theinternational trading system and its centerpiece, the World Trade Organization.Since the demise of the Doha Round, the WTO’s standing as a multilateralnegotiating forum has declined sharply, salvaged in part by the recentagreement in Bali. It will be essential, after Bali, to reflect seriouslyon the next phase for the WTO and its role in the international trading system.The major international financial institutions – the International MonetaryFund, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, andthe regional development banks – are having to work hard to make themselves fitfor the twenty-first century. The authority of the United Nations has frayed.

Until wereverse the trend of declining multilateralism, governments’ ability to respondto global challenges will not improve. Business can moan and the media cancarp, but the answer to many of the world’s great problems is more – or atleast better – government, not less. A better supply of government meeting theflow of demands.

Ronald Reagan famouslyinsisted that, “government is not the solution to our problem; governmentis the problem.” Today we know better: If government is not part of thesolution, our problems will only get bigger.