In development administration, not only the government but also citizens and NGO’s play a vital role. The term ‘governance’ is used to describe this cooperative effort of the government and non-governmental bodies in public administration. Governance is broader than government as
1. it includes formal institutions of government e.g., legislature, bureaucracy as well as informal institutions e.g., NGO’s.
2. it aims to improve the performance of public institutions with focus on values like accountability, transparency, citizen feedback, etc.
The Good Governance approach aims at the following :
1. to reform the traditional, huge-sized public administration which was riddled with red tape and corruption.
2. to replace the archaic systems with responsible, participative and equitable systems.
3. to look at interlinkages between government and civil society.
4. to make the administration citizencentered and not rule bound.
a. Participation – The effective functioning of any democratic system requires that people get an opportunity to participate in the process of decision making and its implementation.
b. Transparency – This value of good governance enables people to keep the government under scrutiny for e.g., Right to Information Act (2005) provides citizens access to information about public policies and actions.
c. Responsiveness – The government must be prompt and sensitive while designing policies to serve all stake holders within a reasonable time frame.
d. Accountability – This cannot be enforced without the rule of law and transparency. Any organization is accountable to those who will be affected by it’s decisions and actions, i.e. to stakeholders. Governmental institutions, private sector and civil society institutions must be accountable.
