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 ______________________________________________________________________________ Local Good Governance page 1
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Local Good Governance
y Ramon T. AycoSeptember 2007
I. Introduction
A.What is governance?
The concept of “governance” is not new. Itis as old as human civilization. Simply put“governance” means:
the process of decision-making and the process by which decisionsare implemented (or not implemented)
.Decisions on what? Decisions on the exerciseof administrative authority to manage anation’s affairs on politics, economics, cultureand all other aspects of social life.Since governance is the process of decision-making and the process by which decisionsare implemented, an analysis of governancefocuses on the formal and informal actorsinvolved in decision-making and implementingthe decisions made and the formal and informalstructures that have been set in place to arrive atand implement the decision.Government is not equal to governance.Government is only one of the actors ingovernance, but the principal or major actor.Other actors involved in governance varydepending on the level of government that isunder discussion. In rural areas, for example,other actors may include inuential landlords,associations of peasant farmers, cooperatives, NGOs, research institutes, religious leaders,nance institutions political parties, themilitary etc. The situation in urban areas ismuch more complex. Diagram1 provides theinterconnections between actors involved inurban governance. At the national level, inaddition to the above actors, media, lobbyists,international donors, multi-national corporations,etc. may play a role in decision-making or ininuencing the decision-making process.All actors other than government and themilitary may be grouped together as partof what we call the “civil society.” In somecountries in addition to the civil society,organized crime syndicates also inuencedecision-making, particularly in urban areasand at the national level.Similarly formal government structures areone means by which decisions are arrivedat and implemented. At the national level,informal decision-making structures, suchas “kitchen cabinets” or informal advisorsmay exist. In urban areas, organizedcrime syndicates such as the “land Maa”may inuence decision-making. In somerural areas locally powerful families maymake or inuence decision-making. Such,informal decision-making is often the resultof corrupt practices or leads to corrupt practices.
B.orms of government
In analyzing the history of humanity, oneaspect becomes clear: humanity must begoverned. The natural question is, by whomand how?Government can be gauged by twoextremes. On the one side is a highlycentralized government where one personor a very small group hold absolute power and controls the whole population and everyaspect of people’s life. On the other sideis anarchy. There is no government; everyindividual fends for his or herself. Themost common classication of governmentaccording to the number of people who hold political power are:
 
 ______________________________________________________________________________ page 2 Local Good Governance
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Diagram 1: Urban actors
•
autocracies
where one individual holds allthe power. This category includes absolutemonarchies, as well as dictatorships.•
oligarchies
where political power is held by a small group of people who share thesame interests.•
democracies
are governments where the people as a whole, hold the power. It may be exercised by them (direct democracy),or through representatives chosen by them(representative democracy).•
anarchy
is a lack of government or imposed rule.History has shown that anarchy, if ever established, has a very short life; a strongdictator usually destroys it. Ironically, thatis the sign of an inferior government, it isusually replaced by a strongman who rules thecountry until either a democracy is formed or another strongman replaces the original. Asthe gauge goes from anarchy to dictatorship, personal freedom of the individual becomes more and more limited. When thegovernments demands for the people increaseand freedom diminishes, the more further thegovernments goes to dictatorship.
C.Centralized Government
A
centralized government
is a form of government in which power is concentrated ina central authority to which local governmentsare subject. Centralization occurs bothgeographically and politically.A centralized government is characterized inwhich the local governments are designated by the central Government of the country,
 
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 ______________________________________________________________________________ like the local administrative authorities. Inthis type of government, there are not existinglocal congresses. Nearly any government can be said tocentralize their power to a degree. The termis applied to governments that vest limitedauthority to its subjects and often used incomparative terms, such as “highly centralizedgovernment” or “weakly centralizedgovernment”.Actually, the majority of governments inthe world are centralized, be it a top-heavygovernment or a dictatorship. The citizens of a centralized democracy elect their politiciansand then have little involvement until the nextelection cycle. Too much centralization meansdictatorship, and in a dictatorial governmentall the rights of the people perceived to be harmful to the leader or leadership arecurtailed.History shows that the more centralized agovernment is, the less freedom the people have.The less freedom the people have, the more agovernment is vulnerable to corruption. Even if a dictatorship started in a very “noble objective”,it always end up in corruption perpetrated by theleader himself or by the people around him or her.Leaders and their regimes very rarely callthemselves “dictator(ship)”, and usually donot consider themselves to be oppressive, or simply do not admit it. Most often, dictators portray themselves as benevolent and savior,an absolute ruler who exercises his or her  political power for the benet of the peoplerather than exclusively for his or her own benet.Hitler is a classic example of a dictator. Herose to power with a slogan “freedom and bread” and promises order, prosperity, andcommunity to the German people. But hisdictatorship ended up in rampant corruptionand holocaust that kills thousands of people.In the Philippines,arcos presentedhimself as the individual who could break a long pattern of corruption and inadequateleadership. He used such slogans as “Riceand Roads” and “This Nation Can Be GreatAgain!’ to rise in power. He imposed martiallaw and claimed that it was the prelude to thecreation of a “new society”. But Marcos, hiswife, and their closest associates practicedcorruption with impunity. They plundered thePhilippine economy through their system of “crony capitalism,” in which they controlledmonopolies in industry, communications, and banking.When Marcos and his family left thePhilippines, they took with them some 300crates of prized possessions and more than 28million cash, in Philippine currency. In 1995,the Philippine government was able to auctionoff three jewelry collections of Imelda Marcosworth $13 million. In 2003, the Philippinegovernment was awarded $650 million fromfrozen banks accounts in Switzerland that had belonged to Ferdinand Marcos.
D.Corruption and poverty
In the recent past, many politicalestablishments have been caught in scamsand scandals, with leaders amassing wealth,resources and power. The magnitude of the systematic fraud, deceit, chicanery,embezzlement and theft is shocking. Thisappropriation of public funds directly affectsthe whole society most especially the poor  people.Corruption is a symptom of something gonewrong in governance. Institutions designedto govern the relationships between citizensand government are used instead for the personal enrichment of public ofcials and the provision of benets to the corrupt.All forms of government are susceptible tocorruption, or political corruption to be exact.
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markpb2002

napaka gandang sulatin kasama ...hindi ko pa natapos iniscan ko pa lang pero impressed na ako sa lahat nang gawa mo.

reply03 / 06 / 2009
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