Anticipatory governance

Anticipatory governance, or anticipatory profiling, is the practice used by the state to collect information and data about its citizens in order to assess events or behaviours in a predictable manner based on the knowledge gathered. Anticipatory governance is also a method of decision making that uses predictive measures to anticipate possible outcomes to then make decisions based on the data provided. Anticipatory governance is a system of governing that is made up of processes and institutions that rely on foresight and predictions to decrease risk and develop efficient methods to address events in their early conception or prevent them altogether.   Anticipatory governance, or anticipatory profiling, is the practice used by the state to collect information and data about its citizens in order to assess events or behaviours in a predictable manner based on the knowledge gathered. Anticipatory governance is also a method of decision making that uses predictive measures to anticipate possible outcomes to then make decisions based on the data provided. Anticipatory governance is a system of governing that is made up of processes and institutions that rely on foresight and predictions to decrease risk and develop efficient methods to address events in their early conception or prevent them altogether.   Anticipatory governance is a concept that has been derived from terms of similar meaning, like forward engagement and forward deployment, which was a primary focus for decisions made by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). More recently, anticipatory governance has become data oriented practice which allows citizens and governments to utilize data as contributions and evidence for decision making regarding various matters within society. For example, Finland has a Finnish parliamentary Committee for the Future, which takes advantage of foresight to predict and evaluate the impact of developments to the country. Since 2001, the Millennium Project has initiated a project entitled the State of the Future Index, has been using a predictive methodology to foresee the future for global countries based on historical data, variables and indicators, such as GDP, annual population, literacy rates, population, and unemployment. Anticipatory governance is a system with four components. They allow the system to: use a foresight, have a networked system that integrates foresight and policy procedures, receive feedback in order to improve efficiency and knowledge, and allow for flexibility. By allowing for feedback, anticipatory governance can detect and assess the development of future programs and policy. Feedback can be done through audits, and assessments of performance. The anticipatory system must adapt to consider possibilities that result from the data and may appear to be untraditional to allow the system to be effective and depend on pragmatic data. Anticipatory governance utilizes various techniques to assess society which can evaluate the continuous information from knowledge based technologies, such as machine learning. Anticipatory governance also takes into consideration that the concept cannot predict the future certainly, however, it can account for several possible future avenues. In order to determine these possible avenues the following list of indicators are required: 'aggregated averages, risk assessment, sensitivity analysis of factors or decisions driving the scenarios, identification of unacceptable scenarios or worst cases, and assessment of common and different impacts among the scenarios.' Anticipatory governance allows the state to use collected public information in order to determine predictive practices and draw conclusions based on this data. Data that is gathered by governments in large volumes can be considered Big data. Governments utilize predictive analytics to examine what kinds of behaviour and events that may occur as a result of this collected of data. Anticipatory governance can be used by enforcement agencies in order to proactively protect the public, for instance by estimating where future crimes may occur and identifying areas of improvement for law enforcement. Anticipatory governance is not always focused on finding solution, rather it can be focused on a preventative method altogether. As a result of this methodology, anticipatory governance, can be an alternative to having the bureaucracy form specific groups to address issues, whereby, the issue can be avoided due to precise foresight. Furthermore, anticipatory governance can also be considered a precaution, in the sense that it is a practice for preparing for the possible future. Anticipatory governance involves a governing body to implement its practice, such as government institutions and policies. For example, education governance utilizes policy instrumentation in order to gather data about students as a means of creating predictions to improve future education. However, anticipatory governance can also be applicable in similar instances by private companies and by smaller organizations. For instance, Hewlett Packard can determine which employees will leave the company and they are able to identify ways of preventing this turnover. Primarily, anticipatory governance relies on data in order to derive predictive analytical evidence to support its practice, therefore, it is necessary to have an infrastructure that sustains the produced data, such as databases, coding, computational power, and algorithms. These infrastructures can be provided by private companies that have the resources and technologies to acquire and create them.