Download Good governance and legitimacy

Good governance and legitimacy
Yu Keping
In 1970s, German scholar, Jugen Habermas, put forward the idea that developed
Western countries were facing legitimacy crisis (Habermas, 1975: 68-75). Since then,
the legitimacy theory has been one of the core issues in political science, and the
problem of legitimacy crisis has been troubling politicians.
Legitimacy crisis have
come in cycles—they came into being and then got resolved—these are signs of
political progress.
Violent conquest, blood ties, religious beliefs, old superstitions,
and other things used to be important sources of legitimacy in traditional politics.
In
modern times, welfare, good government and benevolent government have become
the main sources of political legitimacy, and in particular, the establishment of
democracy and the rule of law is a key to the creation of political legitimacy
After
entering into the 21st century, the world is facing new crises and new challenges on
legitimacy issues.
From a Western perspective, on the one hand, the developed countries have
encountered great difficulties in trying to export liberal democracy or Western
democracy, not only in the regions of former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, but
also in many transitional countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Diamond,
1995) Success stories are few while failures abound. Particularly in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the Western-style democracy led to disastrous consequences for both
sides—politically a loss-loss situation. On the other hand, the success of
non-Western-style democracy in some countries is shaking up classical theories of
democracy. Especially in some Asian countries, such as China and Singapore,
which have strongly resisted Western-style democracy, they have made great
economic success and maintained social and political stability. This has prompted
more and more Western scholars to ask this question: what exactly is the main source
of political legitimacy? Western-style democracy does not necessarily bring about
economic prosperity while economic prosperity could bring about stability in a
country. The above observation has made people to ask this question: is representative
democracy the main source of legitimacy?
From the Eastern perspective, on the one hand, failures of Western-style
democracy in many developing countries, especially in the context of the global
financial crisis that has severely weakened developed countries in the West, and the
great success in economic development in China and other countries, have further
strengthened the position of their ruling class on negating liberal democracy from the
West. And this has even convinced some intellectuals and ordinary people in these
countries that representative democracy does not work for them. The democratic
practices by Western countries in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, and
particularly recent political turmoil in Thailand, Philippines, Pakistan and other Asian
countries have further provided evidence for the political illegitimacy of
Western-style democracy. However, on the other hand, great economic success and
political governing model have not addressed legitimacy issues, such as widening gap
between the rich and the poor, increasing social unrest, serious corruption and vested
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interests, serious degradation of ecological environment, and the loss of government
credibility.
In other words, countries, including China, which have created miracles
of economic development and successfully resisted the development model of
Western countries, still face challenges to legitimacy.
So, what does it mean when Western and Eastern countries are both facing
serious challenges to legitimacy?
It means that political legitimacy is undergoing
major transformation in our times. And the main sources of legitimacy are moving
from welfare, democracy, good government and so on to “good governance.”
I
would argue that good governance will be the most important source of political
legitimacy for human society in the 21st century. Why? To answer this question, we
must first define what good governance is.
In political science, governance refers to the activity and process of public
authority for the realization of public interest.
Governance and government share
common points, but there are also substantial differences between them.
One of the
substantive differences between the two is that the main body of government can only
be power organs of government, but the main body of governance could either be
government organizations or non-governmental organizations, or even a joint entity of
governmental and private organizations. The focus of government is on the
government itself, while governance focuses on society as a whole.
Just as
government has “good government” and “bad government,” governance could also
have “good governance” and “bad governance.”
management process to maximize public interest.
Good governance is the
The essential characteristics of
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good governance is the cooperative management of public life by both government
and citizens, and it is a new relationship between political state and civil society, and
the best state involving public and private actors and governmental and civil
organizations..
Good governance has the following characteristics (See Figure 1.1)..
First, the
rule of law, that is, the law is the highest standard in public and political management,
everyone is equal before the law, and impartial enforcement of laws. Second,
participation, which first means political participation by citizens in social and
political life, not only political participation but also civic participation in other areas
of social life. Third, fairness, which refers to equality on political rights and
economic rights for citizens of different gender, class, race, education, and religious
and political beliefs. Fourth, transparency, that is, information about decisions is
accessible to all citizens. Fifth, accountability, this mainly means that governmental
and non-governmental organizations are accountable to the public or those whose
interests may be affected by their decisions. Sixth, efficiency, which mainly refers to
management efficiency that makes the best use of resources for public interests.
Seventh, stability, which refers to peace, order, safety, solidarity, and cohensive
public policy and so on.
Eighth, integrity, which means that government officials
and other institutional decision makers obey the law, clean and honest, not abusing
their power for their personal gains or seeking rent through their own power (Yu,
1999)
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Rule of Law
Participation
Integrity
Stability
Good
Governance
Efficiency
Fairness
Transparency
Accountability
Table 1 Characteristics of Good Governance
After we have defined good governance and its basic elements as above, we can
now come back to answer why good governance in the contemporary era has become
the main source of legitimacy.
I think there are five basic reasons.
First, good governance includes traditional political ideals—good government or
benevolent government—but goes beyond good government or benevolent
government.
Ever since the emergence of state and government, good government
has become the ideal model of political management of people’s expectations, which
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is the case for all countries throughout the ages.
In ancient China, what is called
“Renzheng”and “Shanzheng”are roughly the equivalent of "good government" in
English.
In traditional Chinese political culture, the most important function of
“Renzheng” or “Shanzheng” is to bring about fairness and integrity that could bestow
officials with good reputation and honorable authority and it requires officials at all
levels to love and treat their subjects like the way parents treat their children,,with no
selfishness and bias. However, speaking more abstractly and broadly, the elements
of good government are essentially similar, whether in China or abroad, throughout
the ages, and generally include the following key elements: good legal system, clean
and honest officials, high administrative efficiency, and, good administrative services.
There is no doubt, as long as government exists, such good government will always
be citizen expectations for government. However, good governance is governing
based on civil society, which not only requires good governmental governance, but
also good social governance. Furthermore, good government is only a necessary
condition for good governance, but not sufficient by itself. With only good
government, but without good civil society, we can not say we have achieved good
governance.
Second, good governance includes most of the basic elements of democratic
politics of the modern times, but goes beyond the scope of democracy. For example,
democracy requires the rule of law, participation, transparency, accountability and so
on, all of which are also the basic elements of good governance.
But good
governance also includes efficiency, stability, fairness and, justice—elements which
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are often considered to be absent in a democratic system—which are even used by
some to attack democracy.
The main reason used by many non-Western countries to
resist democracy is that democracy reduces efficiency, and often leads to social
instability, but efficiency and stability are precisely key elements of good governance.
Good governance and democracy are not equivalent, but good governance indeed
encompasses most of the basic elements of democracy, and in a sense that good
governance is an ideal political state pursued by democratic politics.
Third, good governance is both a necessary condition for the welfare and
livelihoods of people and the end result of them.
Many developing countries, in
certain periods of time, often emphasize the importance of economic development,
and consider the improvement of people's livelihoods and welfare as the foundation of
their government’ legitimacy. But social stability and government efficiency are the
prerequisites for economic development and improvement of people's livelihoods.
Furthermore, in the meantime while developing the economy and improving people's
livelihoods, the government also has to promote social fairness and justice, expand
political participation of citizens, and increase government transparency and
accountability, because economic development and livelihood improvement alone are
not sufficient to gain people’s trust in government and recognition of its legitimacy..
As pointed out above, the conditions needed for improving people’s livelihoods, such
as stability, efficiency, fairness and so forth, are also the basic elements of good
governance.
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Fourth, good governance has attributes that transcend time and space, as
compared to the politics of government.
Politics is about authoritative distribution
of basic interests in human society, and it is difficult for something to be universally
accepted in political life.
politics.
Disputes and differences exist in many important areas of
From a Marxist perspective, politics is a tool of the ruling class, and
different classes in human society have their own political views. But relatively
speaking, good governance can better transcend time and space than government to
adapt to different political contexts and appeal to different classes.
Public
governance is the exercise of political management, while governance action is
political action, so it reflects a certain political value.
Thus, governance reform is an
important part of political reform, while governance system is an important part of
political system. However, as compared to political behavior of government,
governance is a political behavior that places more emphasis on technical elements of
governance than its value elements in social and political life. Governments under
different political systems all seek to have higher administrative efficiency, lower
administrative cost, better quality public service, and more public support.
In other
words, be it a Western country or an Eastern country, a socialist country or a capitalist
country, a developing country or a developed country, all governments seek better
governance.
Thus, it is argued that good governance is a common goal of
governments around the world (Sheng, 2006).
Finally, the common trend of political development of the mankind is to shift
from good government to good governance.
Both government and governance are
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the exercise of public managements, but significant differences exist between the two.
As political managements, both government and governance require authority and
power, and their ultimate goals are to maintain normal social order, which is their
common attribute. However, as the activity of public administration, government and
governance have important differences in the main entity, process, foundation, nature,
and scope of management.
"Less government, more governance" has already
become a political slogan in many Western developed countries (Blair, 1998).
In some non-Western countries, such as China, the role of governance is also
becoming increasingly important. Governance has increasingly covered more aspects
of the conduct of public affairs while government has changed its previous role that
encompassed almost all aspects of the conduct of public affairs to a less degree and in
a reduced scope of coverage. This is not only a requirement for the development of
democratic politics, but also a reflection of improved governing performance.
It
means more cooperation between citizens and their government, and more citizen
participation in the activities of political management of the state, which also means
there has been an increase in the level of democracy. As a result of that, the
government has withdrawn from more spheres of public management to allow civil
organizations or citizens themselves to manage them, which would greatly simplify
routine administration, substantially reduce the cost of government management, and
ultimately improve the effectiveness of government administration. Therefore, the
fundamental direction of human political development is to continuously transition
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from government to governance—to transform public administration from good
government to good governance.
To conclude, I think that political legitimacy has undergone a fundamental
transformation in the late 20th century and early 21st century. Good Governance has
become the main source of political legitimacy.
If legitimacy is defined as the state
in which social order and public authority are voluntarily recognized and obeyed by
the people, then we can even regard good governance as the equivalent of legitimacy.
Good governance is an ideal political state that human society could have imagined so
far—a political pursuit of humankind to shift away from traditional ideas of good
government or benevolent government.
However, we should be aware that it will be
a long-term process before we reach the ideal political state of good governance.
In
the current state of human political development, good government still plays an
irreplaceable role, and it is still the key to good governance, while democracy and the
rule of law are the only way to enhancing legitimacy.
References
Habermas, Jurgen (1975) Legitimation Crisis. (translated by Thomas McCarthy).
Boston: Beacon Press.
Diamond, Larry, et al. (1995) Politics in Developing Countries, 2nd Edition. Boulder:
Lynne Rienner Publisher.
Keping, Yu (1999) “Introduction to Governance and Good Governance.” Marxism
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and Reality. No. 5.
Sheng, Yap Kioe (2006) “What is Good Governance.” UNSCAP.
http://www.unescap.org/pdd/prs/ProjectActivities/Ongoing/gg/governance.pdf
Blair, Tony (1998) The Third Way: New Politics for the New Century. London: Fabian
Society.
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