Abstract
The discourse on governance yields an unclear answer to the question of whether governance really matters in improving growth, not merely in economic terms, but also in improving the daily life of citizens, especially the poor. The first section of this article highlights trends in the theoretical discourse on governance, outlining attempts to define and assess the construct. Section 2 presents key criticisms launched against donors’ perspectives on governance: while critical voices suggest that the way governance has been pursued by external actors is heavily flawed, there is still universal consensus that good governance is sorely lacking in certain countries, particularly in South and Southeast Asia. Section 3 argues that in these regions, citizens’ civil liberties and political rights, government effectiveness, rule of law, regulatory quality, and anticorruption efforts have not kept pace with robust economic growth. Section 4 is devoted to summarizing what are perceived as the most interesting and critical observations in the book. Drawing on these and other observations from the first part of the chapter, the question of whether governance matters for the growth outcomes of developing countries is addressed. To make governance matter, there is a need for a tailored approach to governance reform—one that can maximize the impact and outcome of development.
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Notes
- 1.
International development agencies claim that governance reforms can bring about significant changes in political and economic growth and development. Kaufman et al. (1999) examined the primary data for 150 countries and assessed the variability of the six sets of governance indicators: voice and accountability, political stability and violence, governmental effectiveness, rule of law, regulatory mechanism, graft and corruption. The findings of the study have shown that a one-standard-deviation increase in any of the governance indicators causes approximately a 2.5 % increase in per capita income, a four-fold decrease in infant mortality, and a 15–25 % increase in literacy. This percentage also includes adult literacy.
- 2.
Although the World Bank identifies political, administrative, and economic aspects of governance, it was only recently that it started including the political aspects in its policies.
- 3.
A corroboration of this point is the study from Bangladesh and Nepal by Jamil & Askvik in this volume: better government performance ensures more trust and confidence in various public institutions.
- 4.
‘Developing Asia’ includes all of the countries in the continent of Asia except for the Middle East (Iran, Turkey and the Arab countries), and excluding the advanced economies of Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Developing Asia thus includes the two awakening giants of China and India, as well as other large nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Source: http://www.economywatch.com/economic-statistics/country/Developing-Asia/.
- 5.
These include, but are not restricted to, political stability and absence of violence (political stability for convenience), controlling corruption, and voice and accountability (voice).
- 6.
Not surprisingly, these three elements of governance show the widest gap between developing Asia’s average and that of the advanced economies: a difference of 0.77 points on voice, 0.67 points on regulatory quality, and 0.78 points on controlling corruption (ADB 2013).
- 7.
The Index of African Governance is a project geared towards measuring and assessing the quality of governance across Africa’s 53 countries. It focuses on performance in five areas: Safety and Security; the Rule of Law, Transparency, and Corruption; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human Development. Using 57 indicators, the Index offers a report card on performance in each country.
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Aminuzzaman, S., Jamil, I., Haque, S. (2015). Does Governance Matter in South Asia and Beyond?. In: Jamil, I., Aminuzzaman, S., Haque, S. (eds) Governance in South, Southeast, and East Asia. Public Administration, Governance and Globalization, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15218-9_15
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