Effects of Digital Technology on Citizens PDF

# Effects of digital technology on citizens ## Positive implications of digital technology on citizens ### **Self-control** - Digital technology enables people to control, express and manage their emotions. - In the workplace, for example, workers in some jobs often have a loveless relationship...

# Effects of digital technology on citizens ## Positive implications of digital technology on citizens ### **Self-control** - Digital technology enables people to control, express and manage their emotions. - In the workplace, for example, workers in some jobs often have a loveless relationship with their managers. - In such relationships, face-to-face communications may lead to uncontrolled emotional aggression between the worker and the manager. - Digital technology enables workers and managers not to meet face-to-face, since technologies provide new arrangements between work and personal time and space. ### **Fostering socialization** - The presence of technologies in human behaviors enables some individuals to communicate and foster beneficial interpersonal relationships and improve well-being. - Engaging with others online may involve social interactions rather than social comparison. - By reaching out to others, engaging in meaningful social interactions and strengthening our social bonds, we are likely to improve our wellbeing. - Computer systems have altered human interactions. - It allows people to stay closer to their loved ones when they are physically far apart. - Technologies have even transferred certain common behaviors people want to acquire. ### **Maintaining emotional balance** - The domestication of digital technologies at home allows the family culture around rules of use to be negotiated among the different family members and friends more easily. - It is a useful resource for maintaining emotional balance, to cope with every day stress, for the coordination of everyday activities, and for articulation of intimacy between peoples ### **Supporting happiness and wellbeing** - When people make video calls to talk to people all over the world, it gives a sense of purpose, joy or excitement. - Social media, for example, is a place where people can connect socially and engage in kind and helpful behavior - activities that have been shown to boost health and wellbeing. - For example, sending message on social media, people can express a kind of word or share people gratitude. - For the young with symptoms of depression, social media is very important in helping them express themselves creatively, get inspiration from others, and even feel less depressed. - Comparing ourselves to the seemingly perfect lives of friends and people we follow, social media seems to be beneficial. ### **Regulating emotions** - Technology has given people access to lots of health and wellness resources making it easier than ever to build and practice skills like gratitude, mindfulness and regulating emotions online. - Good applications can teach us the skills we need to optimize our wellbeing, help people stay motivated to do so, and even benefit their mental health. - For example, computer based training in emotion regulation improved anxiety and wellbeing among those who had trouble regulating their emotions, suggesting that skills that promote happiness can be learned. - Since technologies allow a remarkably accelerating accumulation of thoughts, people can learn and respect fundamental behavioral principles with great responsibility. ### **Providing a sense of security** - Technologies, for example, mobile phones, give people a sense of security when they are in a public space. - It's potential to access known others like the police means that the device is viewed as a more effective weapon of self-confidence. ### **Increased emotional satisfaction (self-conception)** - The more people link to others, the more they like each other. - For example, mobile phones enabled people to communicate with others and gathering information from many. - People who receive many calls and message from others may get a sense of proud and feelings of satisfaction by which these people believed that we are known by many people and we are the sources of information. ## **Negative implications of digital technology on the emotions of citizens** ### **Isolation** - Technologies, such as social media are designed to bring people together, yet they may have the opposite effects in some cases. - People with higher social media use are more likely to feel socially isolated than those who do not use social media often. ### **Secondhand living** - Many people no longer experience real-life events directly. - On the internet people create imaginary identities in virtual worlds and spend hours playing out parallel lives. - People are increasingly preoccupied with the virtual realities. - People in chat rooms blur the boundaries between their on-lives and off-lives, and there is every indication that the future will include robots that seem to express feelings and moods. - All these change human identities from real life to artificial life. - Music concerts or live shows are videoed on mobile phones, events are photographed, and audio is recorded. - Media is uploaded on to social sites. - Life becomes something that is experienced through the prism of digital media rather than firsthand. ### **Depression and anxiety** - There is a link between social network and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. - Many studies found out that people who had restricted social interactions and who are more involved in social media and online interactions are more prone to higher level of depression and anxiety than those who are more involved in social interactions with other people. ### **Anonymity and fake personality** - Digital technology provides wide scope for users to hide their identities. - People are much more likely to behave anti-socially if they do not think that there will be any consequences. - Bullying, trolling, stalking, threatening, and insulting behavior have all increased dramatically with the rise of the internet. - People assume fake personas for the purpose of scamming and defrauding. ### **Addiction** - Social media, computer games, messaging, and dating websites can all be addictive. - Games want you to play so that you will buy the next version. - Websites want you to interact so that they can bring in advertising money. - Users end up wasting vast amount of time and hemorrhaging money for low return. ## **Positive Implications of digital technology on the Ethical values of citizens** ### **Developing critical thinking** - Proper and accurate use of technology is one of the most powerful tools for developing critical thinking of young citizens. - Digital technology allows people to think and look beyond their spheres and perspectives. - This means that they no longer see things from specific sources of information. - While people access information from diversified sources, they are able to analyze, check facts, and challenge the information rather than passively accept the dictums of others. - People who have limited sources of information and knowledge have no choice to ignore. - Rather they accept what they get as ultimate truth and fact. - People using digital purposefully would acquire, enhance and develop the power, the skill and knowledge to identify and critically evaluate what is fact and what is individual's opinion. - Later they could gain new perspectives. - So, technology rich environments foster self-regulated learning. - That means, people can develop the capacity to monitor, evaluate, and control thinking while completing new tasks which help critical thinking and transfer of knowledge ### **Developing universal moral values** - People come from diversified society with diversified moral norm participating in philosophical debates and discourses with others through different technologies is important to develop a universally guiding moral principles. - People who live in isolated environment always believe their moral norms are best, but the moral norms of others are worst. - When they start to communicate with others, and begin to learn more about other people, they compare and contrast the good and evil norms of the world society. - Through time, such good moral norms got acceptance and become universal moral principles ### **Self-learning of good habits** - Good moral characters may not be always acquired from family and peers. - The way people make moral decisions and become good may have been shaped by other persons who have good ethical behaviors. - Digital technologies allow people to learn ways of acquiring good moral values from the experiences of others. - For example, reading the life experiences of philosophers from different sources may help a person to learn what kind of person she/he should be and what kind of behaviors she/ he should acquire. - As youth participate in digital public, every younger age's questions about their developmental capacities seem particularly important when considering their capacity for discerning the ethical pledges that are at play in the digital media. - When people start to interact with others, they begin to reconsider their conceptions about what is good or bad, right or wrong, just or unjust and become aware of the broader society, its values, norms, and expectations. ## **Negative Implications of digital technology on the ethical values of citizens** ### **Ethical dilemma** - The move from one set of dominant information to another through digital technology is always morally/ ethically contentious. - People who access different philosophical thoughts from various digital sources may experience ethical dilemma when something at work goes against their personal ethics, morals and values. - Such dilemma may force people, for example, to choose between being honest and dishonest, or between what they know is right and what they know is wrong. - These dilemmas may lead people to lose or change their norms and values established in their own socio-cultural spheres. ### **Increasing uncertainty** - In this digital world, many ethical issues are raised and discussed through internet. - Different people engage in conversations and debates and transform to others through webs about how to behave well or have right characters or how to lead our lives properly. - For such questions, philosophers have no well-articulated answers till now. - Hence, people may confront with the lives they really live, which leads them to confusion and uncertainty of their future. ### **Creating unhappiness** - Technologies can encourage unethical practices in a number of ways. - Today, the media can reflect some very vulgar and offending messages. - Especially via computer, the perpetrators of these messages can offend people within their own culture and in other cultures, through e-mail, instant messages or unsuspecting software. - Imagine that a message from unknown address comes to you .When you read the e-mail, there is a very offending joke about your culture. - The e-mail, obviously, was unethical and it distracted you from your duties. #### **Untruthfulness** - All information disseminated through digital technologies always possess the issue of truthfulness. - Truthfulness as a norm of ethics is one of the significant values of people. - Transfer of fake information, messages and news to others has become a norm for some people in this digital era. - Now many young citizens are affected by such misconduct to get likes, subscribes and shares on you tube, face book, and other social media. #### **Eroding people's norms of freedom** - Digital technologies have become a place in which users express their hates against their opponents. - Many people have lost their freedoms of writing and speech using different media because of fear of insult by people who refuse their views or opinions. #### **Induction of negative emotions** - People are experiencing negative emotions, such as fear, disgust, and anger. - These emotions become routine for some people when they watch a sad film, war and disastrous videos, etc. - Such emotions disrupt and dislocate the thinking and attention of human beings. - That has profound effects on people's ability to think. ## **The ethics of using digital technology** - Ethical and acceptable behavior is important in utilizing digital technology such as internet, cellular phones and laptops. - In today's digital world, there is increasing trends of misuse and abuse of emerging technologies. - Some examples include using internet to intimidate or threaten students, using cellular phones during class time, and playing games on laptops. - As ever-smarter technologies proliferate, so too does the potential for its misuse, for example, a flawed algorithm may lead to a wrongful deportation of many people, harvesting others without their consent, and unchecked use of technology that can lead to negative consequences. - So, how can we address these issues? - This shows us as to why digital ethics matters more than anything. - Some of the common ethical and social codes students should be aware of while using digital technology include Understanding the ethical, cultural, and societal issues related to technology. ### **Practicing responsible use of technology system, information and software** ### **Developing positive attitudes towards technology applications that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits and productivity.** - These codes of conduct are important to guide student's behavior in and out of school in using technology. - Teachers also must prepare students to be members of a digital society or digital citizens. - In the following section we will discuss the major areas of digital citizenship which are important to teach appropriate ethical behavior. ## **What is digital citizenship?** - Digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of behavior with regard to technology use. - It is the appropriate and responsible use of the internet, computers and digital devices. - As a way of understanding the complexity of digital citizenship and the issue of technology use, abuse and misuse, we have identified general areas of behavior that make up digital citizenship. ### **Etiquette:** - Electronic standard of conduct or procedure ### **Responsibility:** - Electronic responsibility for action and deeds ### **Safety:** - Physical well-being in digital technology ### **Security (self-protection):** - Electronic precautions to guarantee safety - Now let us discuss these general areas of ethical behavior with examples: Etiquette: - Digital behavior makes everyone a role model for students. - The problem with teaching digital technology is not all the rules that have been written about uses of these devices. - As new technologies emerge, users do not have the opportunity to "catch up" with all of their uses. - Moreover, when students see adults using technologies inappropriately, they can assume it is the norm. - This leads to inappropriate technology behavior on the part of students. ### **Responsibility** - At any early age you may find it easy to locate and download material from the Internet. - Technology users must think twice about what is appropriate or ethical and legal to download materials from the internet. - Examples of inappropriate responsibility: #### **Students copy materials of the internet for class projects without giving credit to the author.** #### **Students download illegal materials from the internet sites.** ### **Safety** - Students need to be aware of the physical dangers that are inherent in using technology. - Carpal tunnel syndrome is one (though not the only) of such dangers. - Eyestrain and poor posture are common problems in technology- related activities. - You should use technology in a responsible way to prevent various physical injuries. - Example, using technology in rooms that are not well lit. ### **Security** - As more and more sensitive information is stored electronically, a corresponding strategy to protect that information must be created. - Students must learn how to protect electronic data (example, virus protection, firewall, offsite storage). - Protecting one's equipment is not only a matter of personal responsibility but also necessary for protecting the community (example, keeping one's virus software up to date). - However, digital security goes beyond protecting equipment. - It includes protecting ourselves and others from outside influences that would do us physical harm. - Example of inappropriate security: #### **Failure to protect your identity while using e-mail, chat, or instant messaging** #### **Failure to protect electronic data** #### **Failure to maintain current software updates on other computers so as to protect from computer virus.** ### **Confidentiality** - Internet users consider privacy or security to be one of the important issues. - A lot of internet users are not aware of the fact that personal information may be revealed when they go online. - Examples of inappropriate confidentiality: when people tell their email, Facebook and other passwords to others. ### **Accuracy/ trust worthiness** - Although there is a wide realm of information available on the internet, there is no agency monitoring truth or accuracy of information. - There is no restriction on false information. - Teachers should inform their students about the situation to protect them from citing or reading incorrect information. - Inaccurate information can cause confusion in society, and medical and legal issues. - In sum, with the rise of technology use at home and in the class rooms, developing digital citizenship has been a priority in countries of the world. - Ensuring children and the young people are active, engaged and respectful online users are essential to fostering digital skill development and inclusion of the non-skillful children. - The reality of being online is that children and the young people despite their digital skill levels, will be exposed to risks. ## **Opportunities digital technology provides for young citizens** - In the ever-globalized world, the change in the use and advancement of digital technology offers opportunities for young citizens. - This section is intended to present some of the opportunities of digital technologies for young citizens including information access, connectivity, digital learning, innovation and versatile working. - Let us discuss them one by one. ### **Information access** - First and for most, the ever growing digital technology is a window of opportunity for young citizens to easily access information about what is going in their own country and around the world. - Hence, digital technology favored an open access to information which would enable young citizens to engage in collaborative activities and to become part of the world people. ### **Social connectivity** - Digital technology facilitates conditions to the young to connect socially in spite of time and space. - Therefore, it creates the opportunity of empowering the young generation to fully participate in today's digital world. - This would be an advantage for them to be informed citizens. - In addition, it is an opportunity for the young people to be familiar with the tools and codes of their ever-digitalizing world. ### **Learning opportunities** - Anybody with access to the internet now has an access to a huge proportion of the world's knowledge over the web. - Lessons and courses can now be delivered virtually online. - Communication advances mean that the young people can now easily communicate with most of the world's population and learn directly from sources without the need of face- to-face contact or going abroad. - For example, people trying to understand foreign events, or to learn new language, thanks to digital technology, they can easily learn and acquire knowledge and skills. - Digital technology enables the young to acquire short term trainings on different disciplines. - Even people can develop their skills by watching videos, listening audios and searching relevant internet information regarding what they want. ### **Versatile working opportunities** - Due to the advancement of digital technology, the nature of work has been transformed. - Increased connectivity options means that many young people now have far more opportunities for working from home as remote working has become increasingly common. - Many jobs can now be done from hundreds, or thousands of miles away without difficulty. - Digital technologies also provide opportunities for the young to easily search and apply online job opportunities. ### **Innovation and creative opportunities** - The advancement of digital technology is a fertile ground for the young generation to be creative and innovative. - The opportunities in terms of information access, connectivity and digital learning are the enabling factors for the young citizens to be innovative in different aspects of life. - In addition, digital technologies enable young citizens to be exposed to new ideas and technologies which equally contributed to creativity and innovation. ## **Impacts of unethical use of digital technology on young citizens** - Although the spread of advanced digital technologies has positively contributed a lot to human beings in many ways, the unethical use of these technologies has negatively affected young citizens. - Let us discuss some of the impacts of unethical use of technology on young citizens. ### **Academic dishonesty** - Cheating and internet plagiarism is a serious unethical use of digital technologies which affect the academic performance of the young. - Academic dishonesty, like cheating includes copying from another's work or allowing one's own work to be copied, submitting another person's work as one's own, fabrication of data, consultation with an authorized person during the examination, or use of un authorized aids. - Plagiarism- is the act of presenting the ideas, words, or other intellectual property of other persons as one's own. - Such kinds of digital cheating could be less effortful, particularly with the ease of using copy and paste functions to incorporate others 'digital text in to one's own. - So, when one's work and intellectual property are simply copied, and plagiarized by others without adding their efforts, it leads to dependence on others' work and property. - When young citizen become dependent on others' work, they become dependent and unanalytical in their academy. - This unethical conduct affects not only the academic performance of people who copied, but also of those people whose work is plagiarized and copied by others, because plagiarism leads to the erosion of authors morality, which again results in academicians leave out the academic circle and research contribution. - This affects the future generation who could benefit from the work of others and who want to contribute to their people by writing books, and articles and conducting researches. ### **Digital media piracy** - This is a leading unethical practice in the use of computers. - Piracy is regarded as illegal circulation and distribution of music, movies, books and other intellectual property. - Such unethical acts affect the young in many ways. - First, it violates the property rights of those whose music, movies, books etc... are distributed and circulated to others without payment. - Secondly, such conducts affect the production industries and hinders young generation from their commitment to hardworking. - For example, musicians and academicians, and film makers lose their property rights because their properties are stolen and distributed without payment. ### **Identity theft** - Digital technologies provide wide scopes for users to hide their identities. - People are much more likely to behave anti-socially if they think that there will be no consequences. ### **Unfriendly and revenge sex** - The irresponsible and unethical use of digital technology poses risks for the young in their relationships with their sexual friends. - Digital technologies enable young people to share, create and forward suggestive aggressive sex videos. - When the young practice like what they watch in the videos, it leads them to separate from their friends or to be addicted. - Youngsters who have access of downloading and watching sex videos are prone to early sexual experiences which bring about many problems for them (effect of education, engaging in sexual relationships early, family crisis, etc.). ## **Understanding good governance** ### **The concepts of governance** #### **What is governance?** - The word governance has been understood differently by different people. - The common and general definitions of the term governance is defined as follows: - Governance refers to the exercise of political and administrative authority at all levels to manage a country's affairs. - It comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions, through which citizens, groups, civil societies, community members and private sectors articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences. - It is the manner in which the government is working together with other stakeholders in society, exercises its authority and influence in promoting the collective welfare of society and the long-term interests of the state. ### **The concept of good governance** - The question of how governments work in a better way? or how ineffective economies and government bodies work in a better way directs our attentions to the issue of good governance. - Now a day's the term has gained importance around the world, since it plays a positive role for the socio-economic advancement and political progress. #### **What is good governance?** - Good governance is a way of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in a better way at which a public service is efficient, a judicial system is reliable and an administration is accountable to its public. - It signifies a participative manner of governing that functions in a responsible, accountable, and transparent manner based on the principles of efficiency, legitimacy and consensus for the purpose of promoting the rights of individual, and public interest. - Good governance assures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources. - Good governance occurs when societal norms and practices empower and encourage people to take increasingly greater control over their own development in a manner that does not impinge upon the accepted rights of others. ### **Elements of good governance** - Elements of good governance may vary according to the nature and functions of institutions. - However, the following elements are commonly practiced by all institutions and organizations for realization of their purposes. #### **Accountability:** - Is a principle which requires elected and appointed government officials to be answerable for the decisions and acts they undertake. - Officials must make decisions and perform their duties according to the will and wishes of the people, not for themselves. - For government to be accountable the people must be aware of what is happening in the country. #### **Participation:** - Every citizen has a role in the process of decision making. - Participation by both men and women area corner stone of good governance. - All men and women should have voice in decision-making, either directly or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their interests. - Society should be allowed to express their concerns in the policy making influencing them without any fear and discriminations. - Such broad participation is built on freedom of association and speech, as well as capacities participate constructively. #### **Rule of law:** - Good governance requires legal frame works to be fair and been enforced impartially. - It means that everyone must obey the law and be held accountable if he/she violates it. - Impartial implementation of laws requires an independent judiciary and impartial and incorruptible police force. - It also involves provision of free legal aid to the poor and needy people who cannot afford to pay to legal practitioners. #### **Transparency:** - Refers to the availability of information of the general public and clarity about government rules, regulations and decisions and those decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. - Transparency is also means that information is freely available, known and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement. - Transparency in government decision making and public policy implementation reduces uncertainty and can help inhibit corruption among public official. #### **Equity and Inclusiveness:** - A society's well-being depends on ensuring that all its members feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of society. - This requires all groups, but particularly the most vulnerable, have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being. #### **Responsiveness:** - Good governance requires that institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders within a reasonable time frame. #### **Consensus Oriented:** - Good governance requires: - Mediation of the different interests in society to reach abroad consensus in society on what is in the best interest of the whole community and how this can be achieved; - Abroad and long- term perspective on what is needed for sustainable human development and how to achieve the goals of such development; - A broad and long-term perspective on what is needed for the society and how to achieve the goals. - This can only result from an understanding of the historical, cultural and social contexts of a given society or community. #### **Effectiveness and efficiency:** - Good governance means that processes and institutions produce results that meet the needs of society while making the best use of resources at their disposal. - The concept of efficiency in the context of good governance also covers the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment. ### **The role of good governance** - The explicit commitment to principles of good governance has provides the following roles. #### **Economic development:** - Good governance is the most important factor in promoting economic development. - The important roles that good governance has to address economic problems is through ensuring the rule of law, improving the efficiency and accountability of the public and private sector, better allocation and distribution of resources, allowing the community access to government institutions and markets and increasing growth and ensuring the development outcomes that are redistributed to all of the population. - Good governance promotes inclusive growth through effective implementations of government policies and the existence of impartial institutions that make possible a fair distribution of the benefits from the economy and by protecting property rights and supporting an equitable enforcement of law for all individuals. - Good governance also calls for a decentralized development and administration, which ensured the society's participation in their own affairs. - This form of governance would ensure that citizens are not just objects of development but subjects who take responsibility of their lives and their development. - In good governance - the common mass are the central focus of all development. #### **Social development:** - Development does not just involve increase in income/ or economic growth, but also include sustainable improvements in the living standard of the society and social well-being. - Good governance ensures a better today and a brighter future for all the citizens and generate a great deal of interest among the people that represent the aspirations and hopes, culture of the people. - Good governance is enhancing the ability of the people to gain better and dignified life, greater options to choose from and ensuring transparency in administration etc. - Good governance brings positive change in the quality and span of life of the people through: - Access to better living conditions; - The ability to feed, cloth, and shelter oneself resulting from more income in one's means of livelihood; - Ability to live longer life as a result of the provision of health and medical facilities and, prevention of diseases through better sanitation. - The ability to read, write and understand through the provision of education; - The ability to participate meaningfully in public affairs. #### **Strengthen social cohesion and unity:** - Good governance ensures that the people at large have a stake in the affairs of the state and do not feel excluded. - It also ensures social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources. - Good governance promotes that diversified opinions are mediated in a society to develop consensus on what is practical, beneficial and in the larger interest. - The desire for strong social cohesion and unity will be best served through; the promotion of democratic principles, popular participation, human rights and rule of the law, enhancing the ability of people to gain better and dignified life, and ensuring transparency in administration. - Good governance along with education helps how to achieve peaceful transformation and conflict resolution. #### **Promoting peace:** - Good governance is a key instrument for promoting peace by providing pathways for citizens to feel that their issues and identity is represented in the decision-making structures. - It also allows diversified social, political, and economic groups to engage in the decision-making process and provide for the equitable receipt of benefits and resources and offer mechanisms for all people to voice their concerns and grievances, and protecting their rights and guarantying security. - When the governance system is not participatory, accountable and transparent, it is a fact that some groups feel to be excluded, which in turn contribute to instability. - A country, which is democratic in its polity, is well governed if its government can simultaneously sustain legitimacy, promote socio-economic development and maintain order without coercion. #### **Ensuring social justice:** - Good governance encourages judicial flexibility and creativity, opening legal systems to new justice claims and to the values espoused by political and social minorities. - Good governance and social justice are interrelated terms. - The creation of social justice means the creation of an environment in which every individual gets unreserved and unhindered opportunity for all development. - Access to justice is based upon the basic principle that people should be able to rely upon the correct application of law. - Impartial enforcement of rule of law as a basic attribute of good governance enables people to be treated equally by institutions that administer the law, the courts, the police and civil services. #### **Guaranting government stability:** - Good governance seeks to improve the capacity of the state, and increase efficiency and effectiveness of government performance. - This implies that accountability, transparency and responsiveness on the part of government and its officials are the hallmark of good governance in any society. #### **Ensuring respect of human rights:** - There is no doubt that nurturing good governance is essential to ensuring respect for human rights. - Without rule of law, courts and other institutions, the enforcement and respect for human rights would be impossible. - Transparent, responsible, accountable and participatory governance is a prerequisite to enduring respect for human dignity and the defense of human rights. ## **Challenges of good governance** - People in developing countries are now facing many governance challenges. - Their government institutions are not effective and responsive. - Officials are unaccountable, courts are not independent, and resources are not efficiently utilized. ### **Poverty** - Some of the major challenges facing developing countries are discussed below. - Poverty affects societies in many ways, including undermining good governance and democracy. - Good governance principles could not be realized in a condition where people are poor. - Poverty does not provide a fertile ground for the promotion of rights and participation. - When people are starved they are concerned about where they can get meal. - They do not worry about their participation in the decision-making process. - Effective governance cannot be achieved while extreme poverty exists because it creates results in exclusion, isolation and loneliness and exacerbates a sense of stigma and shame. - This in turn creates a sense of not being able to join in the society or play any part in it. - Poverty is the negation of all social existence due to the impossibility of full enjoyment of fundamental human rights, social, economic and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights. - Effective governance is difficult to attain when those affected by poverty have trouble getting their voices heard and their interests taken in to account by service providers and decision makers. - Hence, good governance cannot be achieved since citizens are unable to attain full and effective enjoyment of all fundamental rights. ### **Corruption** - Rampant corruption causes discrimination, injustice and disregard to human self-respect. - It imperils the stability of democratic institutions by making these institutions inefficient and ineffective in delivering public services. - Corruption is considered a failure of institutions in particular those in charge of investigation, prosecution, and enforcement. - Corruption damages the development process in many ways. - First, it distorts economic systems by creating consistent budget deficit, which leads to persistent inflation reducing the real purchasing power of consumers. - Secondly, it undermines social confidence and capacity in the public institutions to fulfill their obligations to the people and it reinforces existing power relationships that are themselves part of the development problem. - Thirdly, highly visible corruption accentuates the sense of injustice and grievance associated with poverty, unemployment, and economic hardship. - Corruption has also been a major obstacle to the successful implementation of economic reforms. - The entrenchment of political corruption and clientelism as the principal means of economic advancement aggravates conflicts, by raising the premium on control of the state and rendering politics a more desperate, zero-sum struggle for control of economic opportunity. - The weakness of the rule of law makes it easier for leaders of different groups to mobilize violence at the grassroots as part of their efforts to win power for themselves. - It also facilitates electoral fraud and violence. - Citizens would have low levels of trust in one another and in the future. ### **Impacts of lack of good governance** #### **Political Instability:** - Governments that implement public decisions, policies, and laws driven by the intention and interest of some groups and those in power without the participation and interests of the public always experience political instability. #### **Inability of rule of law:** - The concept of good governance is undoubtedly linked with citizen's right to life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness. - Such rights of citizens could be secured only through the rule of law. - Rule of law ensures the operation of power and stands against the arbitrariness of absolute rule. - When the political structure of a country becomes weak, every political leader is tempted to manipulate laws, break the law related to security, properties, life, money etc... #### **Inability to secure justice:** - Injustice comes from lack of proper distribution of essential resources and not getting their fair share of the deliverable promised by the government. #### **Lack of transparency:** - The government practices have to be always been questioned. - The simple reason for this is that there is no information how government performs its works until and unless some disgrace comes up. #### **Lack of empowerment:** - The common people do not get chance to voice their needs while policies are formulated. - This could be due to lack of desire on parts of the governments to know public opinion or to do timely consultation or due to lack of awareness among the public regarding policies that are being implemented. #### **Inefficient service delivery:** - Lack of good governance results in inefficiency in service provisions, and in some cases no service at all. - For example, lack of good governance in education and health sectors results in not only lack of standards, information, incentives and accountability but also it leads to corruption due to which the resources allocated could be been used for private gain. - Unresponsive and irresponsible health professionals sell medications and medical equipment allotted for public clinics. - In the judicial system also lack of good governance also results in the delay of service delivery. #### **Administrative Irregularities:** - When government offices do not work in accordance there will not be proper management of data. ## **Understanding and fighting corruption** ### **Definition and forms of corruption** - Corruption is defined as the misuse of public office or power for one's own private gain or benefit. - It is also the impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principles applies to unethical behaviors on all levels of society's power structure. - Corruption is more common in an environment where the administration lacks independence and professionalism, weak legal framework and weak enforcement mechanisms, weak institutions, lack of accountability and transparency of officials, unpredictability of administrative procedures and bureaucratic complexities and so on. - It erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development, and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and instability. - Corruption may takes place in the following forms: #### **Bribery:** - The director indirect offer or provision of undue payment, gift or other advantage to an official in violation of his or her legal duties in order to obtain any other undue favor. #### **Embezzlement:** - The theft or misappropriation of public resources by public officials. #### **Fraud:** - Crime that involves some kinds of trickery, swindle or deceit. - Teaching with a license obtained on false ground is an example of fraud. #### **Nepotism:** - A form of favoritism in which an office holder with the