Governance

The Concept of Governance

In the 1980s, the “weakening-state” debates started in Western academia. Central in these debates is that the capacity of classical political institutions (such as government departments) to steer societies top-down has been called into question. Reasons for this are, for example, the increasing fragmentation and dynamics of society and new challenges like fast global communication streams as well as a raising global interdependency. As the effectiveness of government and its capabilities became increasingly questioned, reforms were demanded. In the vein of “New Public Management,” governments worldwide started to downsize, decentralize, deregulate and privatize; duties were outsourced and delegated. Increasingly decision-making processes were extended beyond the classical political realm.

It was in this context that the concept of governance was increasingly used in political science to grasp how actors and institutions tried to come to grips with the perceived increase in the dynamics and complexities of society. The term governance has its origins in the Latin word gubernare (steering, e.g., a ship to the harbor) which itself goes back to the Greek kyberneîn (to conduct a vehicle or ship). Plato first used the term metaphorically to refer to the conduct of human beings.

In France, the term gouvernance has been used in a similar fashion to government since the 18th century. In the 19th century, the term governance was increasingly used to describe the actions of governors in the English-speaking world.

Good Governance and Corporate Governance

The term governance gained worldwide prominence when international actors like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations started to introduce “good governance.” The World Bank introduced the governance debate in the development of cooperation politics in its African study of the year 1989 when they postulated a “crisis of governance” in Africa. The concept “good governance” implies a shift of responsibility from aid toward the internal affairs of troubled countries, particularly their ruling elite. Today, international development agencies use the term governance to describe activities and rules to steer societies in desired directions according to the institutions' programs.

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