Local economic development, an emerging reality in sub saharan africa

4.4: The Concept of Good Governance

Since the 1980’s the concept of good governance has dominated international discussion within development and international assistance to Africa. What is most demanding to partner governments, development consultants, donors and scholars is not just how to promote good governance but equally how this can improve on the overall developmental conditions in Africa. Whereas in the 1980’s the policy agenda concentrated on economic reforms and structural adjustment, focus has now turned to the criteria for good governance as a fundamental factor for economic development and poverty alleviation (Wilmot, 1997/1998: p. 1). Most aid donors are convinced that the achievement of development objectives is linked to good governance e.g. the United Nation Development programme makes poverty alleviation the primary aim of political accountability. On the other hand, the World Bank looks at political accountability as being linked to anti-corruption. Thus good governance has been seen by some scholars as an end in its own right in the achievement of the developmental goals in Africa. That is why most official donor assistance comes with conditions attached, and as such have frequently attempted to force good governance on dependent states for development assistance (Smith, 2007: p. 1 - 17).
The concept of good governance is a broad concept within which other concepts are attached thus making it not easy to be defined. The issues of democracy and development, popular participation and development, corruption and development, and the issues of state capacity, transparency and development are all enshrined within the concept of good governance. Within this context, new priority issues emerged e.g. state and public sector reform, improving the capacity of the state to deliver public goods and services, and how to improve the quality and efficiency of public administration and the civil service, etc (Wohlmuth, 1997/1998: p. 1 - 7).
Good governance may be defined as “government that is democratically organized within a democratic political culture and with efficient administrative organizations, plus the right policies particularly in the economic sphere. This has generally included trade liberalization, the deregulation of economic activities…” (Smith, 2007: p. 4).
The above definition lays emphasis on the economic sphere and democratic tenets of good governance. This presupposes that non-democratic states or states which do not liberalize their markets cannot talk of upholding the precepts of good governance. Furthermore, the definition insinuates that all democratic states are abiding to the principle of good governance. This presupposition is an affront within academic thinking and creates a more complex situation in attempting a definition for this concept.

Therefore, there is no single and exhaustive definition of good governance, nor is there a delimitation of its scope that commands universal acceptance. The term is used with great flexibility which serves as both an advantage and a source of some difficulties at the operational level. Most international organizations have developed their own definitions of good governance with different expectations. This makes the concept to occasionally suffer from subjective interpretations. However, good governance relates to the political and institutional processes and outcomes that are deemed necessary to achieve the goals of development. More suitably, a lot of academic literature looks at good governance as a normative concept that refers to norms of governance within the state (Wohlmuth, 1997/1998: p. 1-7 and Smith, 2007: p. 1 &17).

4.4.1: Attributes of Good Governance

The attributes of good governance are the elements of the concept that enable developing countries such as SA to function more efficiently thus accomplishing their developmental goals. In order to better understand the concept, it will be necessary to examine it as a normative term based on the following attributes:
(a) Legitimacy of government: The legitimacy of government is based on popular sovereignty and international recognition. Here the governments must achieve legitimacy through a transparent, free and fair electoral system by popular vote. Legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens at both national and local government level is the basis of a vibrant economy. This is because it will reduce possibilities of civil and political disobedience and foster democracy as the political authorities reflect the will of the people to whom they are accountable. Furthermore national resistant movements will be co-opted within the democratic structure of the state and their demands could be presented through either political parties or other organizations that have a national or local representation. The apartheid years in SA saw the growth of ANC as a national resistant movement and the imposition of political, economic and social sanctions on SA by the international community. Political legitimacy and national unity is said to be two sides of the same coin as these serve as the main push for economic growth and development for the alleviation of poverty. A legitimately democratic government obviously gains international recognition from other governments and international organizations thereby improving on its cooperation ties (Smith, 2007: 111-112 and Wohlmuth, 1997/1998: p. 7).
(b) An Appropriate Legal Framework to guarantee the rule of law: Good governance requires appropriate legal frameworks that are enforced impartially irrespective of race, colour, sex or origin and a regular and impartial administration of public rules. It also requires full protection of human rights, including those of minorities. According to John Rawls (an American philosopher), “one legal order is more justly administered than another if it more perfectly fulfils the precepts of the rule of law”. The rule of law also implies equality that expunges all forms of discrimination. This will safeguard rights of citizens, businesses and a fair public administration for the fostering of development of a country such as South Africa (Smith, 2007: p. 45-78).
(c) Popular participation: This will enable decision making by the people at all levels of the state. The World Bank strongly supports popular participation as an attribute of good governance for it improves the effectiveness of development projects and programmes at both local and national level within a state. Popular participation must be co-opted into policy design, implementation and evaluation by public authorities. This can be done through the administration, the people, civil society organizations and NGO’s, etc. Participation is important as it guarantees long term sustainability of projects and policies. It equally strengthens ownership, transparency, accountability and empowerment. Gender relationship should also be incorporated into participation as this gives the possibility for both men and women to take part in decision making. However, a perfectly functional democracy guarantees greater participation and assures the protection of the vulnerable in society through the concept of good governance. Governments that involve the public will be in a better position to make good decisions and the decisions will enjoy more support from the populace once taken. While there may be no direct link between democracy and every aspect of good governance there is no doubt that accountability, transparency and participation are reinforced in a democracy, and also support the quality of a democratic system. In other words, good governance reconciles conflicting interests to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interests of the people/participants and where possible, on policies and procedures (Smith, 2007: p. 149-154 and Wohlmuth, 1997/1998: p. 7).
(d) Political and Social Pluralism: Legitimate political pluralism gives room for multi-party democracy, electoral choices, and justifiable and effective political opposition within the state. The opposition in a pluralistic political system serves as the watch dog for the population by scrutinizing government action thus rendering greater accountability within government institutions at both national and local level. It equally pressures for meaningful policy reforms such as when corruption is exposed. Thus pluralism restores the imbalance of power between the state and society and provides the basis for the abusive use of state authority. Social pluralism or freedom of association stimulates political participation and provides the basis for political leadership. Freedom of association and expression allows the formation of civil society organizations and a critical evaluation of government decisions. The empowerment of associations and increased social pluralism within the state makes it more difficult for elites to manipulate democratic institutions and this encourages the growth of civil society organizations and other groups. The mobilization of CSO’s and organized interest groups in a pluralistic political system encourages the political power of the poor and their participation in those political organizations that will promote poverty reduction (Smith, 2007: 128 – 138).

(e) Accountability and transparency: Accountability and transparency create a situation where impersonality in decision making by public officials and a uniform application of rules by them will be guaranteed. This makes accountability an essential requirement of good governance. This is not only a requirement for governmental institutions: private sectors, civil society organizations and NGO’s must be accountable to the public and to their institutional stakeholders. Accountability gives room for scrutinizing public decisions at the internal or external level by other stakeholders. It equally implies public authorities are accountable to the population who evaluate their behaviour and their sense of judgment over policy choices. Accountability is more effective when there is transparency and the rule of law. Transparency means that decisions made and their enforcement are achieved in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to the public. Accountability and transparency give confidence to the various stakeholder of a government (Smith, 2007: p. 17-37).
(f) Rationality of governmental organizational structures: The rationality of government organizational structure enables the incorporation of a public administration system that is highly controlled and characterized by impersonality and a predictable behaviour of officials thereby creating confidence in the citizenry towards their administration in the rendering of public goods and services. Secondly, a coherent governmental structure will create a conducive environment for private sector development. This is because, such governmental structures are people-center and development-oriented (Wohlmuth, 1997/1998: p. 7).
These six elements of the good governance concept should be related or incorporated into the socio-economic development, structural changes and the political reform process of SA. Therefore the quality of governance system is established by the nature of the political system and the specific distinctive attributes of the government. Here I am referring to a democratic government where there is accountability, popular participation, rule of law, etc (Ibid).
What is important is the relevance of the concept of good governance to LED and poverty alleviation. This is because most poverty alleviation programmes such as LED have had little impact on poverty alleviation. Very central to LED is the concept of good governance which acts as a facilitator for an efficient management of the state in order to achieve its developmental goals. For the government to achieve its developmental goal thus alleviating poverty, it becomes necessary to evaluate the developmental policies within the frame work of the good governance concept as outlined above.
There are very persuasive academic arguments that the characteristics of good governance are normally not part of authoritarian or totalitarian regimes. Yet it is equally obvious that some authoritarian governments have elements of good governance at the various government levels and institutions. Consequently some elements of good governance can be found even within the context of undeveloped democratic structures. It is therefore a paradox that in democratic systems of government public administration may show weaknesses that are not in compliance with the nature of government and the principles of good governance (Ibid: p. 7-8). This now creates unresolved issues because democratic governments do no have the monopoly over the characteristics of good governance nor are these characteristics out of the exclusive application of authoritarian states.
The concept of good governance is so important for the South African development agenda because bad management, institutional instabilities, internal political shocks etc impede investment, both domestic and foreign. It is not only the argument about market failures that enables us to lay emphasis on good governance. The stakes are even higher when there are social, political and economic instabilities, the breakdown of social and political institutions, and the danger of further loss of public legitimacy if economic reforms fail. This creates a very legitimate concern for considering good governance as an essential tool for LED in SA. Therefore, development programmes need to be accompanied to an effective development management system and an effective public administration system at all state levels for any meaningful sustainable development process to be achieved (Wohlmuth, 1997/1998: p. 9).