Good Governance PDF

# Good Governance ## Introduction The importance of **good governance** in our state is as important as the problems of corruption, red-tapism and inefficiency has gradually crept into administrative structure of the country and the development has stood still and the gap between rulers and ruled...

# Good Governance ## Introduction The importance of **good governance** in our state is as important as the problems of corruption, red-tapism and inefficiency has gradually crept into administrative structure of the country and the development has stood still and the gap between rulers and ruled has widened. It espouses the elements of accountability, transparency, and responsiveness. Today good governance is not only occupies central place in the development discourse but is also considered as a crucial element in building the nation. The contemporary administrative systems appear to be undergoing huge transformation. Since the issues of globalization, privatization and decentralization have come to occupy the important place, it is pertinent to recognize the fact that governance has to extend beyond the traditional bureaucratic attitudes and accept the value of transparency, accountability, efficiency and equity. The good-governance determines the manner in which human development is viewed by the society. ## Governance Governance is more than mere management. It is not only about decision making, priorities-settings and policies formulating, but also about implementation and result. Governance deals with the capacity of the government to design, formulate and implement policies in general and to discharge their functions in particular. *Human Development Report 2002* of United Nations has given a new perspective to governance by, terming it as **democratic governance**; which is essential for better human development. The democratic governance encompasses the respecting people's human rights and freedom, say in decision making, which affect their lives and holding decision makers accountable. It attempts at making the economic and social policies more responsive to the people's needs. The **governance** involves all such government's activities that manages society. Governance includes a range of activities involving all cultural communities, governmental institutions (legislative executives, judicial and administrative), political parties, interest groups and all sectors (public and private sector). Thus, the **governance** in any society, aims to ensure transparency through the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority. It basically strives to establish quality relationship between the rulers and the ruled. In the simplest term governance relates to effective management of affairs of a country at all levels, guarantee its territorial integrity and secure the safety and overall welfare of the people. According to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, governance is the process through which decisions are made and implemented. In this context governance is the policy-formulation and policy implementation. The term **governance** was first of all used by the World Bank in 1992, which defined governance as having three distinctive aspects: 1. The form of political regime (parliamentary or presidential military or civilian, authoritarian or democratic) 2. The processes by which authority is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources 3. The capacity of government to design, formulate and implement policies in general, to discharge governmental functions in particular. ## Good Governance **Good Governance** related to effective management, it is anchored on legitimacy and credibility. It is participative, democratic, transparent and accountable. Observance of rule of law and equity are its essential requisites. Increasingly, good governance is involving all major stakeholders especially the private and public sectors and civil society. The good governance is not only to be efficient and effective but also has deeply involved with the needs aspirations and demands of the people at large. The *World Bank Report of 1989* has conceived the concept of good governance as "a public service that is efficient, a judicial system that is reliable and an administration that is accountable to the public. The *World Bank Report of 1992* added "new dimensions to the whole issue of good governance: 1. Public sector management 2. Accountability 3. Legal frame-work for development 4. Information and transparency **Kenneth Stowe** set out six characteristics for the clarification of the meaning of good governance which are: 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. Good governance is not only achieved by government itself, but it could be achieved through cooperation and involvement of a large number of people and institutions. These requirements are considered not only essential for good governance but also for the human development. According to **Bratton** and **Donald**, "good governance implies a high level of organizational effectiveness without any choice as to its ideological premise." In the view of **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." According to **Etounge Manguella A**, "good governance implies presence of Rule of Law, safeguard of human rights, existence of honest and efficient government, accountability, transparency, predictability and openness, efficient administration backed by political mobilization of the disadvantaged. Good governance is a process dedicated to the achievement of the three great objectives i.e. (i) alleviation of poverty, (ii) creation of productive employment and (iii) social integration." The changes that are being taken place on global scale add urgent and compelling dimensions to the demand of good governance. The changes are fostered by the expanding processes of globalization, regionalism, and regional cooperation in political, economic and commercial spheres. ## Parameters of Good Governance The following are the parameters of good governance, which were identified by the *World Bank (1993)* and the *UNDP (1995)* Reports for promotion of good governance. 1. **Participation:** It envisages the involvement of entire society in governance through change in their subsidiary roles and direct involvement in area hitherto kept exclusively in the public domain. 2. **Legitimacy:** It emphasizes on the need for a system of governance, which operates with assent of the governed and so provides means to give or with-hold their assent on the basis of popular principle of democracy. 3. **Accountability:** It involves the existence of a mechanism, which ensures that both politicians and officials are answerable for their actions, performance and use of public resources. 4. **Openness:** It emphasizes on the need for public access to quality information and making to all the public open all the transactions in which public interest is at stake. 5. **Transparency:** It involves that all the transactions are made transparently and no underhand game is played by all the concerned. Public can check the accounts of the Government, if there is a need. 6. **Competence:** It demonstrates the capacity and capability to create effective policy and decision making processes in order to achieve the efficient delivery of public service. 7. **Rule of Law:** It involves the rule of Law, which is strictly based on the equity. In equity, every one is treated equally on the basis of justice. There is no discrimination in the administration and statecraft. 8. **Prosperity:** It emphasizes on the economic development in the country in order to prosper the state and society and to alleviate the poverty. 9. **Responsibility:** It provides the principle of responsible government, which is answerable to the people. The responsible government is always relevant for the good governance. Parliamentary system of government is the best example of responsible government. ## Relation between rulers and ruled The good administration always develops good relations between rulers and ruled, which results in the mutual confidence building as well as the government becomes aware about the problems of the people. ## Good Governance v/s Poor governance **Good Governance** is characterized by the people participation, legitimacy, accountability, openness, transparency, competence, rule of law, equity, prosperity, responsibility and good relations between rulers and ruled. On the other hand the poor governance is characterized by arbitrary policy making, unaccountable bureaucracies, unjust legal system, abuse of executive power, wide spread of corruption, no rule of law, irresponsible governments, incompetent civil service, closed administrative system, lack of economic prosperity and restrained relation between rulers and ruled. **Good governance** fosters a strong state capable of sustained growth and social development as well as institutional stability; while **poor governance** undermines all efforts to improve decision making process and create durable institutions. **Good governance** is associated with the capacity building and exercise of political power for efficient and effective administration for the welfare of the people and the poor governance destroys the infrastructure of the exercise of political and executive powers by the bureaucracy. ## Implementation of Good Governance **Good governance** would require that government machinery works with full transparency of operations and is fully accountable. The good governance sets right objectives for the welfare of the people. **Good governance** involves both the people, who are entrusted with responsibility to govern and the systems, which are put in operation. **Good governance** is not one-time effort but a continuous struggle to meet the needs of the people and fulfil their aspirations. After the experience of centuries, it is largely accepted that the democratic form of government is most suitable for achieving the objectives of good governance. Though such governments have equally high potential for misuse, yet the rapid growth of governmental institutions and the points of interface with the common people, have resulted in restraining the bureaucracies to misuse its power. Moreover, in the today's context, with the advanced state of technology, particularly the Information Technology, growing global interaction and equally great expectations of the people are checks on the misuse of authority. There is need to pay attention to the mechanism and modalities followed by governments to determine public policies and also critically examine whether the policies are being efficiently and honestly implemented by the governmental institutions. It is also important to see whether the governments have established meaningful linkage with ## Devolution of Power & Good Governance **Devolution of Power** means to devolve the power of centre or region and distribute it into small administrative units. In other words it is the decentralization of power of Federal or provincial government to the small administrative units at district level. The Government of Pakistan created the district governments on the basis of **Devolution of Power Plan** in August 2001, through an ordinance. The devolution of Power Plan based on the principle of decentralization of authority at grass root level through the transparent mechanism. The system of local government has the following objectives: 1. To devolve the administrative authority at grass-root level, which means to decentralize the authority of provincial government among the union, **Tehsil**, and district governments. Now, all decisions are made by the local governments, which were previously made by the provincial government. 2. To make the decisions and to perform all matters through transparently methods by avoiding the corrupt practices. 3. To improve the administration by decentralizing the administrative authority at local level, which would be able to do the job of the welfare of the people without any delay. 4. To ensure the participation of the people in making decisions and in disposing of the people's affairs. 5. To eliminate the rural and urban divide for bringing at par the rural area with the urban areas 6. To allow the representation to avoid male and female population to avoid the discrimination of sex. ## Responsibilities of Local Government: 1. **Equality:** We expect from the local governments to ensure equity among the local populace by abolishing all types of discrimination of sections and classes. The people's representatives will be able to maintain equility among all rsegments of society, as they have authority to do so. 2. **Elimination of corruption:** The peoples representatives have the authority to supervise the economic resource and public affairs, therefore, we expect from them to do the job transparently and honestly, Which will result in the elimination of corruption from the society. 3. **Merit:** The representatives of the people are at the helm of affairs, therefore, we expect from them to follow the merit and to give due to the right men. 4. **Accountability:** The representatives of the people are at helm of affairs therefore, they can make the public servants accountable and responsible for their assignments. ## Remedies-Steps for Good Governance 1. Change must be brought in the attitude of the bureaucracy. Bureaucrats must be told that they have been recruited for the service of the people and not to govern the people. Thus they should serve the people. 2. The feudal system must have been abolished immediately after the emergence of Pakistan. But now we should do it for the smooth running of administration and good governance. 3. The civil servants must be advised to remain neutral, impartial and non-partisan. It is necessary to run the administration impartially, which will result in good governance. 4. We should utilize all our national resources to equip the administration of Pakistan for good governance. 5. The accountability system must be adopted in Pakistan, which should be neutral and impartial. Every individual must be made accountable for his authority. We must follow the system of Hazrat Umar (R.A) in this regard. 6. The pay of the civil servants must be increased according to inflation, and they should be advised to lead a simple life according to the spirit of Islam. It is expected that these measure will lead towards the good governance in Pakistan.