[3][4][5][6] Good governance in the New Yorkish context of countries is a broad term, and in that regards, it is difficult to find a unique definition.
They also complement one another in that more autonomy should be allowed when the state is more capable, such as through tax collection, since bureaucrats can carry out their duties well without much guidance.
[8] Similarly, good governance might be approximated with provision of public services in an efficient manner, higher participation given to certain groups in the population like the poor and the minorities, the guarantee that citizens have the opportunity of checks and balances on the government, the establishment and enforcement of norms for the protection of the citizens and their property and the existence of independent judiciary systems.
The efficiency of one-party governments might seem appealing, but leaders need a deep understanding of a country's power structure and "moral economy", says Meg Rithmire.
Her book Precarious Ties: Business and the State in Authoritarian Asia explores the delicate relationship between capitalists and autocrats in the region.
According to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, "Good governance is ensuring respect for human rights and the rule of law; strengthening democracy; promoting transparency and capacity in public administration."
To implement this, the UN follows eight principles:[1] The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was created at a United Nations (UN) conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
In 1996, the IMF declared "promoting good governance in all its aspects, including by ensuring the rule of law, improving the efficiency and accountability of the public sector, and tackling corruption, as essential elements of a framework within which economies can prosper".
According to the document, good governance is an essential complement to sound economic policies and is central to creating and sustaining an environment which fosters strong and equitable development.
For the World Bank, good governance consists of the following components: capacity and efficiency in public sector management, accountability, legal framework for development, and information and transparency.
[30] A good example of this close association, for some actors, between western democratic governance and the concept of good governance is the following statement made by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Nigeria on August 12, 2009: Again, to refer to President Obama's speech, what Africa needs is not more strong men, it needs more strong democratic institutions that will stand the test of time.
We believe that delivering on roads and on electricity and on education and all the other points of that agenda will demonstrate the kind of concrete progress that the people of Nigeria are waiting for.A range of sources have found linkages between poverty reduction and good governance.
[24] According to Sam Agere, "The discretionary space left by the lack of a clear well-defined scope for what governance encompasses allows users to choose and set their own parameters.
"[44] As a result, it has been pointed out that anti-corruption efforts and government reforms can have very negative consequences in especially fragile countries[45][46] there can be significantly bigger barriers to economic growth than corruption or institutional quality,[47][48] and anti-corruption efforts and governance reforms often fail because of a suboptimal understanding of local socio-political contexts.
[45][46][49] Various authors have furthermore argued that "good governance" provides a very unhelpful development agenda as it is unclear what the "right" kind of institutions are or how they should be realized even if we were to accept that they are necessary or helpful.