Know your government, utilize what they can offer

Not surprisingly, any discussion involving governments always split into opposite directions. Are governments helpful when facilitating and supporting social innovations? It depends on what value that specific government pursues, what are their priorities and what do they do well.

My point here is, utilize what they can offer and find what you need elsewhere if they don't care. Typically  some governments don't care, some seem to care but have done little. Some can work great as an incubator or supporter.

I agree with what Tina Rosenberg wrote in her article: government programs sometimes work better then you imagine when you want to make things work on a bigger scale. But be careful, even when governments  show a nice attitude in helping social enterprises and social innovations, they are not completely helpful.

I read through Sean's blog and find something worth a discussion. He mentioned a program in Singapore that seems to be well-planned and successful. But Singaporeans normally find the harsh regulations and  clear-cut role of their government is hampering their willing to start a business. That probably is true when we're talking about entrepreneurship in business, but is somehow different when the discussion moves to social innovation. From what I know and my previous experience living in Singapore, it's true that the government tends to be paternalistic, in a way that it regulates, forbids, guides, and punishes in details to make sure nothing goes wrong. But it's doesn't necessarily mean social innovation has no where to play in Singapore. A stronger government somehow means social innovations are easier to be implemented and have no obstruction from the gov once it is put into place. Sure they have a small population and market, but their government reveals high efficiency and integrity. From what I saw, the society thrives and rapidly improves due to their government: no thefts, no homeless, high average income. Their business scope is rather outward-facing and industry-limited, but the impact of social innovation go far beyond what industry can cover.

When we're looking at the role of government in social innovation, see what their attitude is, and focus on how we can utilize the resource and opportunities they offer.

http://www.concern.sg/SocialInnovation

This is a website concerning social innovation in Singapore. A brief description on the website kind of summarizes the picture of social innovation in Asian countries.

The biggest social innovator in Singapore has long been the Singapore government itself – innovations such as Central Provident Fund (a social security savings plan), Electronic Road Pricing (for the Central Business District) and the Marina Bay Reservoir(originally a confluence of several river systems) are a few examples of how it has addressed some of the long term social, urban and environmental challenges that this small country with no natural resources faces. The Singapore Economic Development Board itself has also been cited by Volans as a pioneer in social innovation in their report on The Phoenix Economy.
But the picture of social innovation in Singapore is a fast evolving one. The past 4 years have seen a number of civil society and non-profit organisations enter into the social innovation space. The language of social innovation is embedded in the people sector, although the practice of it less so.

In Singapore, really there's no need to draw a line between civil society and government, as long as necessary functions are carried out and people benefit from it. When I was an undergrad, I was involved in a project funded by Lien Foundation mentioned in the website, which is a big participant in social innovation in Singapore, called Lien Service-Oriented Government Index in China. So it's intuitive to me that Singapore has foundations dealing both with government  and with social innovation.

Here's an example for an environmental project called "Greenroof", which is designed to make major buildings' roofs covered by greenery.
http://www.greenroofs.com/blog/tag/singapore/
In social innovations related to environment or large scale efforts, governments are a key role to play.

It is true what Sean said, though, that governments are driving forces for a lot of major changes especially in Asian countries.Not only because they dominate power, money and resources, but also because its civil society is less autonomous and needs further education to be trained to master their own society. So at this particular stage of development, when citizens are starting to realize their own power and the government still holds bigger power and most of the resources, seek a way to collaborate with them and utilize what they can offer. Probably programs and innovations of larger scale can harvest unexpected outcomes.

Question here:
Can we generalize what governments typically can benefit or hamper social innovation in a nutshell? That way social entrepreneurs can have a general idea of where to seek help and what to avoid, and it may help social innovations to spread world-wide.