Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 05/2009

Good Governance. Ein universelles Leitbild von Staatlichkeit und Entwicklung?

Franz Nuscheler

January 2009

Institute for Development and Peace

Abstract

The World Bank blamed a "crisis of governance“ for the increasingly challenged success of international development cooperation, in particular in Sub-Sahara Africa. After development cooperation got rid of the burden of the Cold War the international donor community conse-quently made Good Governance (i.e. rule of law, respect for basic human rights, fighting cor-ruption) a precondition for effective development cooperation. At the same time economic and development theory underwent a change of paradigm beyond the neoliberal Washington Consensus taking up the insight of institutional economics: Institutions matter. Good Govern-ance became the universal model for efficient government and development. This normative model was not spared ideological criticism, because it was suspected of paving, the way for Western concepts of  "Good Governance” by means of external subsidies and political condi-tionalities. What proved to be much more difficult were the problems with promoting the establishment of democratic structures from outside, especially in fragile states. This INEF Report recapitulates not only the international debate on Good Governance, but also the attempts to develop indices to measure steps forward and backward on the difficult road to Good Governance.