Good governance

THE historical judgement on governments is harsh. It says that governments have many butchers
and few shepherds. However there is increasing interest in good governance. What is good
governance? It is generally understood in its narrow meanings. An attempt is made here to
present some of its less-known features.
Accountability, transparency and equality before the law are well-known attributes of a good
government. There is rightly more stress on corruption. What Senator Cato said about Rome then
is true of Pakistan today: Simple thieves lie in prison and in stock; public thieves walk abroad in
gold and silk.
Corruption leads to misallocation of resources. For example, it could lead to misallocation of
investment and public infrastructure away from their most productive use. It can also lead to
misallocation of talent as self-interested individuals seek rewards in occupations where returns
are inflated by corrupt practices.
Self-interested individuals choose to enter public life in order to capture rents. In its insidious
form corruption tramples on individual rights at the hands of public servants. Pakistan was
ranked 127th among 177 countries in 2013, by Transparency Internationals corruption index.

Is poverty of nations the cause or effect of corruption?

It is argued that systems which are more open to trade cause less corruption. Rent-seeking by
public servants is minimised. The licensing regimes in our country used to generate a
phenomenal amount of corruption.
A strong correlation is found between corruption, the level of income and the enforcement of
property rights. Rich countries may not be totally free of corruption but the incidence of
corruption is fairly low compared to poor countries. Is poverty of nations the cause or effect of
corruption? Poverty has many causes. In the early stages of development, however, corruption
can prove a big bane.
Enforcement of property rights is another big issue. The existence of laws does not necessarily
lead to enforcement of laws. Pakistani court procedures, the expense involved, both legal and
illegal, to secure rights, and delays in adjudicating cases, are unbearable.
Transparency in the governments dealings is another crucial aspect in the context of good
governance. Corruption takes place in the shadows, away from the public gaze. The need is to

throw light on those dark corners. In this respect, the Right to Information Act 2013 of the
government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is worth appreciating.
Moving to the larger context of good government, the standard economic notion is social
welfare. The approach can be applied to policies, political processes and institutions. It provides
an intellectual underpinning for ideas of government operating in the public interest. In the
traditional welfare economic model, good government is largely identified with reference to
efficiency and distribution.
Efficiency requires making a choice from a set of alternatives which is most feasible. Feasibility
requires taking into account both technological feasibility, budget balance, and so on.
The welfare economic model can be thought of as generating rules for good governance using
systematic model of the economy and what drives human well-being. This approach displaced
the classical approach to the issue which merely catalogued the functions of the government as
protecting the society from violence and invasion, establishing an exact administration of justice
and the duty of erecting and maintaining certain public works and institutions.
Good policies require good persons to devise and implement those policies. Where will a country
get this rare breed from? The modern answer to this is democracy. Democracies are run by
politicians. The argument in favour of democracy is that the main sanction for poor performance
is electoral those who perform badly will not be re-elected.
This is a fallacious argument particularly in a country like ours. Those who get elected strive to
make more and more money out of their positions whether in government or in opposition, to get
re-elected next time. Politics is a money game. How many mega scams of our politicians have
we proved and punished? There is growing disenchantment with democracy even in the
democratic West.
Information provided by media and civil society is important in thinking about electoral
accountability. We should draw a distinction between formal and real accountability. A politician
is formally accountable if there is some institutional structure, apart from elections, that allows
the possibility of some action against the culprit in the event that he does a poor job. But there is
no guarantee that such accountability mechanisms are used effectively. Real accountability
requires that those who hold politicians to account have sufficient information to make the
system work.
Governments have been variously characterised as democracies, dictatorships, plutocracies,
aristocracies and kakistocracies. The latter refers to when the worst persons are in power. It is
left to the imagination of readers in which category they place the government of Pakistan.
The writer is a former federal secretary.
raufkkhattak@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2015