Good Governance Revisited

“Good governance” may have been in the subtitle of my 1999 “In Transit” book - but it’s a concept of which I’ve been not only sharply critical but downright dismissive.

The idea of a government which works for its people is an important one – so why have I not shown more enthusiasm for it? Surely we all support such things as transparency, rule of law, accountability and effective public bodies – the notions that lie at the heart of “good governance”?? 

My problem initially was that, in the 1990s, these were largely Western ideas (some very recent) which we were imposing on non-Western nations and expecting them to imitate. Furthermore, we ourselves subsequently proved incapable of living up to these high standards – as an important post earlier this year set out.

Indeed the expectations were so utopian that a Harvard Professor proposed instead (in 2002) the principle of Good Enough Governance – which emphasised that staging and prioritising were needed in a process which would take some considerable time. Remember that, when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Ralf Dahrendorf had warned that it would take at least a generation for the Rule of Law to become properly embedded and enforced in ex-communist societies.

Thirty years later that’s looking a shade optimistic!

And Merlilee Grindle followed up a few years later with Good Governance Revisited (2005) which is ALMOST the definitive paper for this discussion – particularly with its tables and diagram detailing the variety of issues and stages at stake….  

My reservation stems from the fact that Grindle’s paper focuses on what we used to call the “developing” nations and fails to recognise that the Eastern bloc of new EU member states still don’t have fully legitimised systems of governance – she is, after all, more of a specialist in Latin American systems. Her five-fold typology of government – “collapsed”, “personal rule”, “minimally institutionalised”, “institutionalised, non-competitive states” and “institutionalised, competitive states” – seems a bit crude to me and to need nuancing.

Countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Romania need a category of their own.

For the moment, I offer some generalised comments on the difficulties all countries face in seeking to achieve better government. This, of course, begs the question of how many countries are genuinely seeking to improve their systems

Why progress toward Better Government is difficult

Key Principles	Key Factor	Other explanations
Transparency	Ivan Krastev argues that the new emphasis on transparency has increased public distrust	Mainstream media is no longer trusted
Accountability	Globalisation has meant surrender of national powers - and shown political elites to be out of touch
Rule of Law	Various legal scandals have demonstrated judicial incompetence-  and that justice commands a price. In countries like the USA even the basic issue of political succession is now open to doubt – with Republican voters and reps denying the validity of Biden’s election and Republicans denying black voters their right to vote	judges have been socialised into the elite and find it difficult to challenge their own – and in ex-communist countries belong to networks
Effective pubic institutions	Austerity programmes have weakened the efficacy of state bodies	The traditional notion of civil service independence now questioned

You get the sense that Western authorities are now embarrassed by the naivety they showed in the 1990s for believing that change (in others) was possible; that they have decided to follow Grindle’s advice quite literally ("good enough") at least as far as it is applied to themselves.

The best writing on the subject

-       Cultural explanations of economic failure 2019 A useful critique of our (over)readiness to use the cultural explanation

-       Fighting Systemic Corruption – the indirect strategy Bo Rothstein 2018 a typically thoughtful approach from one of the key (Swedish) analysts of government systems

-       Making Sense of Corruption; Bo Rothstein (2017) one of the clearest expositions

-       Making development work Bo Rothstein 2015 An important report

-       The Cultural Foundations of Economic Failure: A Conceptual Toolkit; Paul Collier (2015) Collier is a development economist who wrote an excellent recent book about capitalism and several important studies on migration.

-       Bringing politics back in; Brian Levy (2013) Brian Levy is another economist – who wrote “Against the Grain”

-       What is Governance? Francis Fukuyama (2013) Fukuyama is a key writer in this field

-       Jobs for the Boys Merilee Grindle (2012) A book in which Grindle analyses the situation in 4 Latin American countries

-       Good Government – the relevance of political science; ed S Holmberg and B Rothstein (2012) A very useful collection of the evidence about how much the quality of government matters – including a final chapter which strongly argues that better government makes people happier.

-       Good Governance - Inflation of an Idea Merilee Grindle 2010