Governance, Its Theories and Practices (GTP)

GOVERNANCE,
IT’S THEORIES
AND
PRACTICES

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The course is designed to provide the students of Governance and Public Policy an understanding of principles, policies and practices of Governance at state level. It covers the basic concepts and theories of governance, governance in public administration and public policy, the State and economic development, models of economic governance, the judiciary and its impact on governance, and theories of democratization. It also covers the role of ethics in governance and how it should be institutionalized to play an effective role in the improvement of standards of governance in a State.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

•        Upon the completion of the course, the students will be able to:-

–      Comprehend the core issues and concepts of governance

–      Understand the importance of practices of good governance in running the affairs of the state and apply the knowledge gained through this course in their practical and professional life

–      Raise the standard of governance whenever and wherever they happen to serve Pakistan.

RECOMMENDED READINGS

•        Guidance for Good Governance by Abdullah al-Ahsan and Stephen B. Young.

•        The principles of State and Government in Islam by Muhammad Asad.

•        Governance by Anne Mette Kjaer.

•        Encyclopedia of Governance by Mark Bevir.

•        Civil Service Establishment Code (ESTACODE).

BASIC CONCEPTS OF GOVERNANCE
1

BASIC CONCEPTS OF GOVERNANCE

Origin of the word Governance:

•        The concept of governance is as old as human civilization.

•        The word governance has been derived from the Greek verb κυβερνάω [kubernáo] which means to steer. 

•        Was used for the first time in a metaphorical (implied) sense by Plato (427-347 B.C.). It then passed on to Latin and then on to many languages.

•        Plato in his book “The Republic” has put forward the idea of philosopher king.

•        Plato advocated, “political partnership must be regarded as being for the sake of noble actions, not for the sake of living together”.

•        But much before that the Chinese philosopher, Confucius (551-479 B.C) had advocated the idea of good government and governance.

•        His thought and ideas have influenced the Chinese administration and governance for centuries.

•        Confucius philosophy of  governance is based on the principles of personal morality and on the concept of good government.

•        In ancient times Chinese scholars often loved to say, “Half of Analects of Confucius is enough to govern the whole country”.

Confucius Thoughts on Governance:

•        Be Upright:

    “To govern is to be upright. Who dares not to be upright if you yourself are upright”.

    “Why should a ruler have any difficulty in administrating a country if he himself is upright? How could a ruler correct others if he himself is not upright”.

•        Be Fair and Just:

   “A man may be said to be true gentleman only if he takes fairness as his basic life principle, observes the rites in his behaviour, speaks with modesty, and acts with earnestly”.

•        keep promises:

   “He who is broad wins the multitudes, he who keeps his words is trusted by the people, he who is diligent succeeds in all he undertakes, he who is just is the joy (of the people)”.

•        People follow the Ruler’s conduct:

   “Goodness is something that must have its source in the ruler himself; it cannot be got from others”.

   “The ruler is like the wind, the common people are like the grass. Whichever way the wind blows, the grass cannot help but bend”.

•        Retain the Trust of People:

   Duke Ai once asked the great Master, “What can I do in order to get the support of the common people?”

   The Master replied, “If you raise up the straight and set them on top of the crooked, the commoners will support you. But if you raise the crooked and set them on top of the straight, the commoners will not support you”.

•        Promote Righteous People:

     Duke Ai asked Confucius, “How can I make my people obedient to me?” Confucius replied, “People will obey you if you promote righteous men and suppress evil men. And they will disobey you if you do the contrary”.

     “ A gentleman does not promote a man whose words are pleasant to his ear, neither does he disdain his correct words for he is an unpleasant man”.

           

•        Do not impose upon others what you do not desire yourself.

•        Enrich the people.

•        Do not take the lives of people to Govern:

•        Set personal example:

•        Freedom of expression:

    “You may rob the Three Armies of their commander-in-chief, but you cannot deprive the humblest peasant of his opinion”.

•        Knowing your men well is wisdom.

   “Good ruler loves men”.

   “Wise ruler knows men”.

•        Have honest living:

    Confucius said, “ I would pursue wealth so long as it could be obtained legitimately, even by being a common cart driver”.

    “There is happiness in eating coarse food, drinking cold water and sleeping on the floor. Ill- gotten wealth and rank are just fleeting clouds to me”.

Plato’s Idea of Political Partnership:

•        Plato in his book “The Republic” has put forward the idea of philosopher king.

•        Plato advocated, “political partnership must be regarded as being for the sake of noble actions, not for the sake of living together”.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF GOVERNANCE

Government and Governance:

 - Government: The purpose for which the people live together cannot be realized unless they are properly organized and subject themselves to certain rules of behavior. The agency created for this purpose is called government.

 - Governance:

•        Governance is ‘the action of or manner of governing’. It is the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented).

•        Governance is based on the manner in which a power is exercised by the government to manage the state’s social and economic resources.

•        It can also be said that it is the art of governing, art of ruling, or art of using power and authority.

•        Governance is the act of governing. It relates to

    decisions that define expectations, grant power, and verify performance. Consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes. These processes and systems are typically administered by a government.

To distinguish the term governance from government:

•        “Governance" is what a “Government" does. It might be a geo-political government (nation-state), a corporate government (business entity), a socio-political government (tribe, family etc.), or any number of different kinds of government.

•        Governance is the physical exercise or management of power and policy, while government  is the instrument (usually collective) that does it.

Governance and Institutionalism:

•        From an institutional perspective, governance is about affecting

   “the frameworks within which citizens and officials act and politics occurs, and which shape the identities and institutions of civil society (March and Olsen, 1995).

•        A broad institutional definition of governance thus refers to governance as:

    “the setting of rules, the application of the rules, and the enforcement of rules”. 

•        Government one of the players in governance:

     Others involved in governance include:

•        National level, may include:

    media,

    lobbyists,

    international donors,

    multi-national corporations and others.

•        Urban areas, may include:

    urban elite,

    decision-makers at different levels,

    small scale entrepreneurs,

    trade unions and so on.

•        Rural areas:

   local powerful families may influence decision-making.

•        Such informal decision-making agencies are often the result of corrupt practices or lead to corrupt practices.

Political Governance Requires Restraint of Power

•        Restraints established by law and imposed on power-holder to ensure that citizens’ rights are not being transgressed.

•        Restraint imposed by Constitution providing check and balance to keep power from being abused.

•        Division and separation of power, provides a system of restraints upon coercive state action.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF GOVERNANCE

•        Definitions of Governance:

•        “Governance is the institutional capacity of public organizations to provide the public and other goods demanded by a country’s citizens or their representatives in an affective, transparent, impartial, and accountable manner, subject to resource constraints” (World Bank, 2000).

•        United Nations Development Program has defined ‘Governance’ as:

   “the rules of the political system to solve conflicts between actors and adopt decisions (legality),

    proper functioning of institutions and their acceptance by the public" (legitimacy), and

    invoking the efficacy (effectiveness) of government and the achievement of consensus by democratic means (participation)”.

•        “Governance refers to self-organizing, inter-organizational network characterized by interdependence, resource exchange, rules of the game, and significant autonomy from the State”. (Rhodes, 1997).

 

•        “Governance is the stewardship of formal and informal political rules of the game. Governance refers to those measures that involve setting the rules for the exercise of power and settling conflicts over such rules”. (Hyden 1999)

•        Global governance is conceived to include systems of rule at all levels of human activity – from the family to international organizations – in which the pursuit of goals through the exercise of control has transnational repercussions. (Rosenau, 1995).

•        Definitions of Good Governance:

•        Jeffries Richard:

   “ good governance is equivalent to purposive and development oriented administration, which is committed to improvement of quality of life of people  without being necessarily democratic in style”.

•        Kenneth Stowe set out six characteristics of good governance:-

    1. Political freedom including free speech and freely

        elected parliament.

    2. Constitutional and judicial protection of the rights

        of individuals.

    3. Sustenance of rule of law by an independent

         judiciary.

    4. Sustenance of economic and social development.

    5. Development of society as a whole through

        education.

    6. Executive accountability to a freely elected

        legislature.

PARAMETERS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE

United Nations:

    United Nations emphasizes reform through human development and political institutions. According to the UN, good governance has eight characteristics:

•        Consensus Oriented.

•        Participatory.

•        Following the Rule law.

•        Effective and Efficient.

•        Accountable.

•        Transparent.

•        Responsive.

•        Equitable and Inclusive.

United Nations Development Programme:

•        Participation: Involvement of entire society in

     governance.

•        Rule of Law: Based on equity and non-discrimination.

•        Transparency:

    - Built on the free flow of information.

    - Transactions made transparently and under-hand methods are not used.

    - Public can monitor and check the accounts of the

      government.

•        Responsiveness: Institutions and processes serve all stakeholders.

•        Consensus Oriented:

  - broad consensus on what is in the best interest of the whole society,

  - how this can be achieved, and

  - where possible, on policies and procedures.

•        Equity:

  - Fairness, impartiality, even handed dealings with the governed. M

  - Men and women have opportunities to improve or maintain their well being.

•        Effectiveness and efficiency:

    - Processes and institutions produce results that meet needs while making best use of resources.

   - Minimum input; best possible output.

•        Accountability:

      politicians and officials are answerable for their actions to the public, as well as institutional stakeholders.

•        Strategic Vision:

    - Leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on good governance and human development,

    - along with a sense of what is needed for such development.

   World Bank:

•        World Bank Report 1989:

    Good governance was conceived as “a public service that is efficient, a judicial system that is reliable and an administration that is accountable to the people.

•        World Bank Report 1992: Added new dimensions:

     a. Public sector management.

     b. Accountability.

     c. Legal frame work for development and,

     d. Executive accountability to a freely elected

         government.

 

•        World Bank Report 1994:

    Stresses role of bureaucracy and says good governance is “…

  - epitomized by predictable, open and enlightened policy making;

  - a bureaucracy imbued with a professional ethos (attitudes, beliefs); an executive arm of government accountable for its actions; and

  - a strong civil society participating in public affairs; and

  - all behaving under the rule of law.”

    (World Bank 1994: Governance: The World Bank’s Experience).

•        World Bank Report 1997:
Mechanisms for assuring good governance have three key elements: 

    Internal rules and restraints (for example, internal accounting and auditing systems, independence of the judiciary and the central bank, civil service and budgeting rules); 

    “Voice” and partnership (for example, public-private deliberation councils, and service delivery surveys to solicit client feedback); and

    Competition (for example, competitive social service delivery, private participation in infrastructure, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and outright privatization of certain market-driven activities).

International Monetary Fund (IMF):

•        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.

•        Corruption within economies is caused by ineffective governance of the economy, either too much regulation or too little regulation.

•        To receive loans from the IMF, countries must have, in place, good governance policies, as determined by the IMF.

Asian Development Bank (ADB):

    The Governance dimensions laid by ADB are no different. These are:

•        Accountability

•        Participation

•        Predictability

•        Transparency

INDICATORS OF POOR GOVENANCE

•        Arbitrary policy making.

•        Unaccountable rulers.

•        Unjust legal system.

•        Abuse of executive power.

•        Wide spread bribery and jobbery. Corruption, now, is perceived as including not only fraud that is, using dishonest means and  committing illegal acts for

    the purpose of financial gain but also abuse of authority and waste as well.

•        No rule of law.

•        Irresponsible government.

•        Incompetent civil service.

•        Closed administrative system.

•        Poor economic conditions.

•        Restrained relations between the rulers and ruled.

 - Poor governance undermines efforts to improve decision making and socio-economic development.

 - Poor governance stalls growth and development.

Devolution of Power and Good Governance

    Devolution of power means to devolve the power from centre or region and distribute it into small administrative units. The system of local government has following objectives:-

•        To devolve administrative authority at gross root level so that the decisions are made at those levels.

•        Make decisions and perform assigned tasks in transparent manner.

•        To improve the administration by decentralizing the authority at local level and provide service without delay.

•        Participation of the people in decision making.

•        To eliminate the urban and rural divide.

•        To allow representation without gender discrimination.      

   Remedial Steps for Good Governance

•        Abolition of feudal system.

•        Change in the attitudes of politicians.

•        Change in the attitude of all forms of bureaucracy.

•        Good accountability system.

•        Pays and allowance commensurate with decent living.

•        Post retirement security of housing and pension.

•        Rule of Law.

MEASURING GOVERNANCE

    It is to assess and measure the quality of governance of countries all around the world.

•         External assessments: Examples of external assessments may be donor assessments or comparative indices produced by international non-governmental organizations.

•        Peer Assessments: An example of a peer assessment may be the African Peer Review Mechanism. African Peer Review Mechanism is a mutually agreed program, voluntarily adopted by the member states of the African Union, to promote and re-enforce high standards of governance.

•        Self-Assessments. Examples of self-assessments may be Country-led Assessment that can be led by Government, civil society, researchers and/or other stakeholders at the national level.

•        Measuring Governance - WGS:

   The World Governance Survey (WGS), based at the UN University, is split into six sub-components.

•        Rules that shape the way citizens raise and become aware of public issues (civil society).

•        Rules that shape the way issues are combined into policy by political institutions (political society).

•        Rules that shape the way policies are made by government institutions (government).

•        Rules that shape the way policies are administered and implemented by public servants (bureaucracy).

•        Rules that shape the way state and market interact to promote development (economic society).

•        Rules that shape the setting for resolution of disputes and conflicts (judiciary).

 - Each sub-components is measured by five questions in a comprehensive questionnaire. For example, an indicator of civil society would be the question ‘To what extent do citizens have freedom of expression?’.

•        The range of answer goes from very low to very high.

•        The questionnaire is answered by 35 well informed persons who are asked to evaluate their country’s performance on each dimension,

•        both five years ago and at the present time.

•        The governance survey aims to give a picture of the quality of governance in a country over five year period.

•        can also be used to compare countries.

•        Measuring Governance – World Bank:

 - World Governance Indicators project, has been sponsored by members of the World Bank and the World Bank Institute. The project reports aggregate individual indicators for more than 200 countries for six dimensions of governance:

•        voice and accountability,

•        political stability and lack of violence,

•        government effectiveness,

•        regulatory quality,

•        rule of law, and

•        control of corruption.

- Based on information gathered from:

•        country’s own citizens,

•        business people and

•        public sector workers

 - Diagnoses governance vulnerabilities and

 - Suggests concrete approaches for fighting corruption.

•        Transparency International (TI):

 - TI is a international non-governmental organization. A global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption

 - founded in May 1993 through the initiative of Peter Eigen, a former regional director for the World Bank.

 - Its headquarters is located in Berlin, Germany but operates through more than 100 national chapters.

 - monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development.

 - It brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world.

 - Its mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption.

- Biggest success has been to put the topic of corruption on the world's agenda. International Institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund now view corruption as one of the main obstacles for development, whereas prior to the 1990s this topic was not broadly discussed.

 - It has played a vital role in the introduction of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

- publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide.

 -  In 1995, Transparency International developed the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

•        Ranks nations on the prevalence of corruption within each country,

•        based upon surveys of business people.

•        It is criticized for poor methodology and unfair treatment of developing nations,

•        while it is also being praised for highlighting corruption and embarrassing governments.

•        Corruption Perception Index (CPI) defines corruption as “misuse of power for private benefit”.

•        - In 1999, Transparency International began publishing the Bribe Payers Index (BPI) which ranks nations according to the prevalence that a country's multinational corporations would offer bribes.

•         - It also publishes an annual Global Corruption Report which is a Global Corruption Barometer.

•         

•        Global and Sectoral perspective on Corruption: (source Global Corruption Barometer 2010)

 - Political parties                            79

 - Public official / Civil servants       62

 - Parliament / Legislature               60

 - Police                                           58

 - Business and Private Sector        51

 - Religious Bodies                          50

 - Judiciary                                       43

 - Media                                           40

 - Education system                         38

 - NGO’s                                           30

 - Military                                          30 

•        Corruption Perceptions Index:

•        provides several surveys and indices:

     - The corruption perception index (CPI),

     - The global corruption barometer,

     - The bribe payers index, and

     - The revenue watch index,

•        draws on 13 different surveys and assessments from 10 independent institutions. The institutions are:

    - African Development Fund,

    - Asian Development Fund,

    - The Bertelsmann Foundation,

    - The Economist Intelligence Unit,

    - Freedom House,

    - Global Insight,

    - International Institute of Management Development,

    - Political and Economic Risk Consultancy.

•        13 survey assessments are either business people opinion surveys or performance assessment from a group of analysts, both in and outside the countries they are analyzing, their perceptions of how corrupt a country is. 

•        Countries are assessed by at least three sources to appear in the CPI.

•        Reliance is not placed on the number of actual corruption cases as laws and enforcement of laws differ significantly from country to country.

•        As of 2010, the CPI ranks 182 countries "on a scale from 10 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt)."

•        The Index, is based on expert assessments covering issues such as:

   (i) access to information,

   (ii) bribery of public officials,

   (iii) kickbacks in public procurement, and

   (iv) the enforcement of anti-corruption laws.

•        Worldwide Corruption Perceptions ranking of countries published by Transparency International in 2011 ranks New Zealand as no 1 i.e. the most corruption free country  and Somalia as the most corrupt out of 182 countries surveyed.

Rank 2011	Country	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007
1	New Zealand	9.5	9.3	9.4	9.3	9.4
5	Singapore	9.2	9.3	9.2	9.2	9.3
6	Norway	9.0	8.6	8.6	7.9	8.7
12	Hong Kong	8.4	8.4	8.2	8.1	8.3
14	Japan	8.0	7.8	7.7	7.3	7.5
16	U.K.	7.8	7.6	7.7	7.7	8.4
22	Qatar	7.2	7.7	7.0	6.5	6.0
24	U.S.A.	7.1	7.1	7.5	7.3	7.2
Rank 2011	Country	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007
28	U.A.E	6.8	6.3	6.5	5.9	5.7
32	Taiwan	6.1	5.8	5.6	5.7	5.7
43	S. Korea	5.4	5.4	5.5	5.6	5.1
60	Malaysia	4.3	4.4	4.5	5.1	5.1
61	Turkey	4.2	4.4	4.4	4.6	4.1
75	China	3.6	3.5	3.6	3.6	3.5
80	Thailand	3.4	3.5	3.4	3.5	3.3
95	India	3.1	3.3	3.4	3.4	3.5
Rank 2011	Country	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007
100	Indonesia	3.0	2.8	2.8	2.6	2.3
120	Bangladesh	2.7	2.4	2.1	2.0	2.0
120	Iran	2.7	2.2	2.3	2.5	2.7
134	Pakistan	2.5	2.3	2.5	2.4	2.2
143	Russia	2.4	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.5
175	Iraq	1.8	1.5	1.3	1.5	1.9
180	Afghanistan	1.5	1.4	1.5	1.8	-
182	Somalia	1.0	1.1	1.0	1.4	-