What is Good Governance and why do we need it? The characteristics of good governance include; participation, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus-oriented, inclusiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, and accountability. While all of these are important, some individuals may put greater importance on some of these characteristics more than others. When any of these are less important to those in positions of authority, government of the people suffers.
The participation of citizens in the process of governance is an important step for mobilizing people to participate in the decision-making process. It can be direct or indirect, but participation needs to be informed and organized. The legal framework represents the rule of law which ensures impartiality in terms of participation in the decision-making process of governance. When those in power select people for committees based on the person’s views on issues and select only those that agree with their goal, the ability to address all sides and all points of concern has been removed from the planning process. When that is done, you cannot have “Good Governance” no matter what you push forward.
Rule of law ensures impartiality, which helps to protect individual human rights in our courts, on our streets, and the right to have a say via voting on significant issues. When in doubt, the right goes to the individual.
Governance needs transparency for the fair delivery of services to the citizens. It ensures a balance between policymaking and its enforcement following proper rules and regulations. It enables the citizen to access governmental information regarding various policies and their implementation freely. Proper media should be established for an easy understanding of this information. Transparency must in fact be transparent in all cases. Selective editing of what is made public is the very opposite of transparency. All public comments and governmental discussions and actions must be made public consistently unless directly prohibited by law. All conflicts of interest must be made public in each case where that can have an effect on the process.
Responsiveness is a basic necessity of the administration which can motivate the interrelationships between administration and people. It requires sufficient services to the people within a specific time consistent across all groups.
Getting consensus across all of the constituents is not always easy but must be the goal. It is in the interest of the people as well as the community.
Inclusiveness of all groups must be established for ensuring good governance. A community’s well-being depends on how its residents feel about being listened to and having a stake in the process and they feel they are not excluded from the mainstream in the governance.
Effectiveness and efficiency are required to ensure the outcomes of the institutions do meet the needs of the city. Proper utilization of resources including property and sales taxes for the benefit of the city as a whole is the key to good governance. Large expenditures on items that primarily benefit a few of the residents must be approved by the majority to be considered good governance.
Accountability is one of the most important characteristics of good governance. Good governance depends on how accountable the government is to its constituents. Without transparency and rule of law, accountability cannot be established.