Good Governance: an idealist idea? (original) (raw)
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Good Governance as a Concept, and Why This Matters for Development Policy
2012
Almost all major development institutions today say that promoting good governance is an important part of their agendas. Despite this consensus, 'good governance' is an extremely elusive objective: it means different things to different organizations and to different actors within these organizations. This study provides a review of donor approaches and discusses good governance as a concept. While methodological discussions are often esoteric, the study argues that this one has real world relevance to development policy because donor agencies regularly measure and assess the quality of governance, condition assistance on these measurements, seek to design evidence-based policies, and justify their focus on good governance partly on the basis of claims that better governance promotes economic development. The weakness of the good governance concept calls into question each of these projects. Future work would do well to disaggregate the concept of good governance and refocus attention and analysis on its various disaggregated components, as defined here (e.g., democracy, the rule of law, efficient public management).
Research and Analysis Journal , 2018
This paper revisits the main arguments on the role of ̳good governance‘ in facilitating economic development. It observes that there are some examples in which neoliberal ̳good governance‘ played a role in facilitating economic development but there are many other examples in which countries attained some level of economic development with governance institutions that were bereft of much 'good governance‘ elements. Thus, it concludes that 'good governance‘ is not an essential pre-requisite for development but it might play some role in facilitating development. The paper argues against the dominant 'one-size-fits-all‘ approach to good governance and support 'good enough governance‘, that encourage reforms to be questioned, prioritised, and made relevant to the conditions of individual countries.
Good enough governance revisited
Development policy review, 2007
The concept of good enough governance provides a platform for questioning the long menu of institutional changes and capacity-building initiatives currently deemed important (or essential) for development. Nevertheless, it falls short of being a tool to explore what, specifically, needs to be done in any real world context. Thus, as argued by the author in 2004, given the limited resources of money, time, knowledge, and human and organisational capacities, practitioners are correct in searching for the best ways to move towards better governance in a particular country context. This article suggests that the feasibility of particular interventions can be assessed by analysing the context for change and the implications of the content of the intervention being considered. ). 1. I first introduced the concept of good enough governance in a paper prepared for the World Bank in 2002.
Yönetim ve ekonomi araştırmaları dergisi, 2022
The role of the state in development has undergone substantial changes under the influence of the New Institutional Economics. The new school, which grounds the emergence of the state as an institution on rational individual behaviors, assumes that the developmental state is not intervening and restricting but coordinating and developing. Influencing neo-liberal development economists, this view also holds that the complementarities are key between the state, market, and civil society, which shines out the goal of good governance more and more. However, the goal that includes comprehensive institutional reforms is far from being realistic and feasible for developing countries. These countries with limited resources need to rely on the improvement of institutional capacity while implementing economic development policies, considering diverse development stages and unique institution compositions. The present paper addresses the "good enough governance" and "just enough governance" approaches that emerge with the understanding of an effective state in economic development and are shaped around good governance but develop a critical perspective. In this respect, the study explores the significance of organizing the institutional reforms according to the states' existing institutional capacities and development levels, as well as determining the priorities transparently in the development process.
Good Governance: Challenges And Prospects
2019
As one of the fastest growing developing nations globally, Nigeria is expected to show leadership in the delivery of public service. This stems from the fact that good governance is crucial for political stability, economic efficiency, long-term economic growth and raising the quality of life for all citizens. Good governance is an issue central to the developmental efforts of most multilateral bodies, chief of which is the World Bank. The World Bank's focus on governance reflects the worldwide drive towards political and economic liberalization. This has led to an increased emphasis on greater state responsiveness and accountability, which are crucial for fostering political stability and economic development. An examination of the World Bank's portrayal of good governance provides further insight into what it means for developing nations. It defines the subject matter as follows: “Good governance is epitomised by predictable, open and enlightened policy-making, a bureaucra...
Government, Governance and Good Governance
Indian Journal of Public Administration, 2018
It is proposed that government, being the tangible expression of the legitimate authority within an organised society, has undegone a long transformational journey since its very emergence. The various evolutionary forms and features of the government have been the product of its meaningful and viable responses to the changing expectations of the people as well as to the challenges they faced in an ever-changing environment. The exclusive domain of the state over the period became a shared space with inclusion of other actors and stakeholders, and an era of governance was ushered in since the 1980s. The much celebrated success of the liberal democracy and its market-led open economy heralded as an era of good governance. However, the universal model of good governance fails to take into account the local constraints of a society. Thus, the idea of good governance has to face various types of challenges in the developing as well as underdeveloped societies.
Development Through Good Governance
European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research, 2016
Since the 1990s the concept ‘good governance’ has become one of the most widely used in debates in development, public policy and international relations. Despite its recent prominence the concept ‘good governance’ has frequently used in different meanings and implications. Following an introduction, which includes a historiographic note on development discourse, the first part of this paper is intended to be an overview of diverse definitions, interpretations and measuring problems of good governance. The purport of the second part of this paper is to focus on whether good governance matters in development or not, the performance of good governance in Albania. This paper has argued that good governance is indispensable in Albania, because misgovernance is a great hindrance and predicament to development. The politicization of bureaucracy, judiciary, appointment, transfer and promotion in all most all offices, lack of voice and accountability, inefficiency and satisfying the vested ...
This study explores the conceptual interface between democracy, development and good governance. It also examines the symbiosis between the three concepts, from theoretical perspective and the praxis. The paper historicizes and traces the emergence of good governance as a concept and universally acceptable principle and its use in international development literature to situate how public institutions ought to or should conduct public affairs and manage public resources, particularly within the frameworks of corporate, international, national and local administration or organizations, and the civil society. The study examines the relationship between democracy, good governance and development in Nigeria and blames the slow pace or the state of development in the country, not on lack of resources, but on the absence of good governance, transparency and accountability. It also identifies pervasive corruption and weakness of institutions of the Nigerian state which individuals manipula...
Purpose -Since the 1990s, most bilateral and supranational donor agencies have been pursuing "good governance" as their priority development policy. Yet, in their own evaluation, the speed of progress of this gargantuan governance project has remained unsatisfactory. The purpose of this paper is to examine the causes of this slow progress by scrutinizing its conceptual foundation. Design/methodology/approach -The analytical approach of this paper is purely speculative, which is occasionally supported by real world data and socio-political evidences. Since the paper uses Governance for Sustainable Human Development -A UNDP Policy Document as the ruling reference material, the paper has been so titled. Findings -First, defining governance as a process misrepresents its problematic nature, which is primarily political and therefore diverts world attention from its root-causes. Second, governance literature treats the state and government as synonymous and by that confuses their political nature. Finally, the paper assigns an all-impressing role to civil society organizations (CSOs) in promoting good governance in the developing world. However, experience shows that they are deeply involved in the creation and continuation of poor governance in the developing country. Practical implications -Humankind now lives in a global village divided into territorially demarcated political units. Accordingly, the peace and prosperity of the global village critically depend upon how democratically each of member state is governed. Good governance in turn hinges on politically trained intelligent and ethical individuals running public administration. The analytical opinions of the paper underline this notion. Originality/value -The paper shows that the ongoing development discourse on good governance revolves around a faulty conceptual foundation. By reviewing the major ideas of the governance paradigm, it clarifies the conceptual connections between political theories and democratic governance.