Good Governance

Rabindranath Tagore once said,

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high 
Where knowledge is free 
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments 
By narrow domestic walls 
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

Isn’t it a fantasy world that Rabindranath Tagore dreamt of? An illusion. Don’t you think that this poem stands ironical in today’s scenario as we are still fettered in the chains of poverty, corruption, illiteracy and so on. Adieu Fantasy! It’s time we do a reality check.

In a common layman language, one might understand that not having this fantasy world in front of your eyes is simply because of bad governance. Most of the people belonging to the poor class and also the middle class or should I say, people with less literacy level often believe that if something is wrong, it is because of a bad government or bad governance. Is this notion wrong? Hard to believe, isn’t it. Is this notion right? Then maybe, we need to discover what good governance is.

To understand what good governance is, it is important to understand the true meaning of the word ‘Governance’. When I first typed the word ‘Governance’ in this MS Word document, it’s thesaurus feature popped a few words as synonyms- Supremacy, Authority, and Control. All these loaded terms compelled me to contemplate that it is extremely necessary to use the word ‘Good’ as an adjective as the sole meaning of the word ‘Governance’ highlights the control exerted by a supreme authority that one can simply imagine as a monarchical kind of rule. But with the addition of this adjective, the entire aura of this word changes.

If I have to put it in simple words, a Government’s role exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and a wife chatting over a fire, a few friends hanging out together and having a game of dart in the pub or eating food at a restaurant, a woman reading a book or a man digging in his garden- that is what the government is there for. And unless the government is helping to prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, armies, courts, parliaments, police, economics, etc. are simply a waste of time. According to me, if any, government is able to put a smiling face on at least half its population, that government can be called an idol government. But this is again a fantasy.

Good Governance doesn’t just mark having good laws or having good parliamentary proceedings. A governance can be claimed as well, only if these laws spread happiness among the people. Let us go into flashback. The pre-Independence era was earmarked by nepotism, monarchies, and favoritism among the ruling classes. Power and wealth were shared by a selected few and common man toiled to make both ends meet. One can say that the reason for this abysmal situation is the lack of laws and a written constitution. Coming back to the present, today, we have the lengthiest constitution and our country moves on the path of democracy and sovereignty. But, isn’t the current situation the same? Aren’t we still boiling hard to make both ends meet? What are we supposed to eat when the price of onion and tomato have so aired up and they have become a mirage for the kitchen? Therefore, it is not the laws that make good governance, not alone at least. Then what is? The answer to this question is, implementation of laws. The mismatch in the existence of good laws and bad implementation is the biggest barrier to a good governance.

Imagine, that the citizens of a country fear an amorphous threat to their security. Maybe the threat emerges from a tide of corruption, black money, fraud, or drug trafficking or any such threat. Perhaps, the citizens fear a growing threat of terrorist activity or simply a bomb in the neighborhood. In response to citizens' concerns and fears, the government recognizes the threats and uses its legal powers to respond and get rid of it. If in case, the existing laws are not sufficient or up to the mark, the government promulgates new laws or pass ordinances that increase its capacity to deal with the threat. When these threats spill across the borders, states cooperate on investigations, craft international treaties  to seize an offender. Over time, governments, therefore reduce both domestic and transnational threats.

The power to impose coercive punishment through law and the implementation of these laws are entirely different things, though depend upon each other in many ways. Power reflects a nation-state's authority or supremacy to legitimately coerce individuals or organizations in an attempt to achieve some objective desired by policymakers. The hallmarks of power are expansively-worded criminal or civil statutes that can be applied domestically or extraterritorially and extensive regulatory powers that can be imposed with minimal judicial intervention to detain people, effect losses of bank accounts, freeze assets or impose civil penalties and forfeits. Implementation, meanwhile, describes the country’s acceptance of that law in regular day-to-day life. Implementation is not assured with the passage of any law. It depends on the interplay between the laws, the behavior of the targets of law enforcement, political inducements, and organizational practices of law enforcement officials and their political superiors.

Therefore, there is no particular definition for a ‘Good Governance’, it all depends on what we infer from it. One might believe that a good governance is the one that is designed to ensure accountability, rule of law, empowerment, stability etc. But an idol government is open for interpretation. But one thing that all must agree is that ‘Good Governance’ ensures smiles on millions of faces and is indeed a beautiful notion.

Picture Credits: Innov Pictures