Good governance is an indeterminate term used in international development literature to
describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources. Governance
is "the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented".
The term governance can apply to corporate, international, national, local governance
or to the interactions between other sectors of society.
The concept of "good governance" often emerges as a model to compare ineffective economies
or political bodies with viable economies and political bodies. The concept centers
on the responsibility of governments and governing bodies to meet the needs of the masses as
opposed to select groups in society. Liberal democratic states, concentrated in Europe
and the Americas, are often used to set the standards to compare to other states' institutions
when talking about governance. Aid organizations and the authorities of developed countries
often will focus the meaning of "good governance" to a set of requirements that conform to the
organization's agenda, making "good governance" imply many different things in many different
contexts.
Forms In international affairs, analysis of good
governance can look at any of the following relationships:
between governments and markets, between governments and citizens,
between governments and the private or voluntary sector,
between elected officials and appointed officials, The varying types of comparisons comprising
the analysis of governance in scholastic and practical discussion can cause the meaning
of "good governance" to vary greatly from practitioner to practitioner.
Reform and standards Three institutions can be reformed to promote
good governance: the state, the private sector and civil society. However, amongst different
cultures, the need and demand for reform can vary depending on the priorities of that country's
society. A variety of country level initiatives and international movements put emphasis on
various types of governance reform. Each movement for reform establishes criteria for what they
consider good governance based on their own needs and agendas. The following are examples
of good governance standards for prominent organizations in the international community.
IMF
The International Monetary Fund declared in 1996 that "promoting good governance in all
its aspects, including by ensuring the rule of law, improving the efficiency and accountability
of the public sector, and tackling corruption, as essential elements of a framework within
which economies can prosper." The IMF feels that corruption within economies is caused
by the ineffective governance of the economy, either too much regulation or too little regulation.
To receive loans from the IMF, countries must have certain good governance policies, as
determined by the IMF, in place. UN
The United Nations emphasizes reform through human development and political institution
reform. According to the UN, good governance has eight characteristics. Good governance
is: Consensus Oriented
Participatory following the Rule of Law
Effective and Efficient Accountable
Transparent Responsive
Equitable and Inclusive World Bank
The World Bank is more concerned with the reform of economic and social resource control.
In 1992, it underlined three aspects of society which they feel affect the nature of a country's
governance: type of political regime;
process by which authority is exercised in the management of the economic and social
resources, with a view to development; and capacity of governments to formulate policies
and have them effectively implemented. Effects
International humanitarian funding Good governance defines an ideal which is
difficult to achieve in full, though it is something development supporters consider
donating to causes. Major donors and international financial institutions, like the International
Monetary Fund or World Bank, are basing their aid and loans on the condition that the recipient
undertake reforms ensuring good governance . This is mostly due to the close link between
poor governance and corruption. Democratization
Because concepts such as civil society, decentralisation, peaceful conflict management and accountability
are often used when defining the concept of good governance, the definition of good governance
promotes many ideas that closely align with effective democratic governance. Not surprisingly,
emphasis on good governance can sometimes be equated with promoting democratic government.
However, a 2011 literature review analyzing the link between democracy and development
by Alina Rocha Menocal of the Overseas Development Institute stresses the inconclusiveness of
evidence on this relationship. Example
A good example of this close association, for some actors, between western democratic
governance and the concept of good governance is the following statement made by U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton in Nigeria on August 12, 2009:
Again, to refer to President Obama’s speech, what Africa needs is not more strong men,
it needs more strong democratic institutions that will stand the test of time. Without
good governance, no amount of oil or no amount of aid, no amount of effort can guarantee
Nigeria’s success. But with good governance, nothing can stop Nigeria. It’s the same
message that I have carried in all of my meetings, including my meeting this afternoon with your
president. The United States supports the seven-point agenda for reform that was outlined
by President Yar'Adua. We believe that delivering on roads and on electricity and on education
and all the other points of that agenda will demonstrate the kind of concrete progress
that the people of Nigeria are waiting for.
Role of political parties Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute
have criticised past studies of good governance to place too little importance on developing
political parties, their capacity and their ties to their grassroots supporters. While
political parties play a key role in well-functioning democracies, elsewhere political parties are
disconnected from voters and dominated by elites, with few incentives or capabilities
to increase the representation of other voters. Political parties can play a key role in pivotal
moments of a state's development, either negatively or positively. While differences in the electoral
system play their role in defining the number of parties and their influence once in power,
the funding and expertise available to parties also plays an important role not only in their
existence, but their ability to connect to a broad base of support. While the United
Nations Development Program and the European Commission have been providing funding to
political parties since the 1990s, there are still calls to increase the support for capacity
development activities including the development of party manifestos, party constitutions and
campaigning skills. Scholarly approaches
Nayef Al-Rodhan, in his 2009 book Sustainable History and the Dignity of Man: A Philosophy
of History and Civilisational Triumph, proposed eight minimum criteria for ensuring good national
governance. Al-Rodhan's eight minimum criteria are: 1) participation, equity, and inclusiveness,
2) rule of law, 3) separation of powers, 4) free, independent, and responsible media,
5) government legitimacy, 6) accountability, 7) transparency, and 8) limiting the distorting
effect of money in politics. In the book, he argues that good national governance is
an important component in creating a history of sustainability for the human race. For
Al-Rodhan, the eight minimal criteria of good governance are expressions of the fundamental
values of democracy and more liberal constitutionalism. Criticism
According to Sam Agere "The discretionary space left by the lack of a clear well-defined
scope for what governance encompasses allows users to choose and set their own parameters."
In the book "Contesting 'good' governance", Eva Poluha and Mona Rosendahl contest standards
that are common to western democracy as measures of "goodness" in government. By applying political
anthropological methods, they conclude that while governments believe they apply concepts
of good governance while making decisions, cultural differences can cause conflict with
the heterogeneous standards of the international community.
See also Due diligence
Good government Peace, order and good government
Worldwide Governance Indicators Governance
References
Book sources Agere, Sam. Promoting good governance. Commonwealth
Secretariat. ISBN 978-0-85092-629-3. found at Google Books
Khan, Mushtaq Husain. State formation in Palestine: viability and governance during a social transformation:
Volume 2 of Political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-33802-8.
found at Google Books Heritier, P. & Silvestri P., Good government,
Governance, Human complexity. Luigi Einaudi's legacy and contemporary societies, Leo Olschki,
Firenze, 2012. External links
What is Good Governance?, UNESCAP sgi-network.org Sustainable Governance Indicators
World Bank Researchers Analysising Governance