3 GOOD GOVERNANCE—CONCEPT AND APPLICATION ‘The idea of good governance embraces various aspects of a civil society: Governance includes the capacity of the government to design, formula and implement policies which are development oriented and committed t improvement of the quality of life of the people. It also refers to the eapacit of the government and bureaucracy to cope up with emerging challenges of the society. Good governance also refers to the ability to deliver goods tt Various stakeholders by making the various agents of political sys work for the betterment of the citizens especially the marginalised sectio Of the society. Elimination.of malgovernances through the processes a the rule of law is another aspect of good governance. “Good governance establishes the rule of law, enforces contracts 4 agreements between the individuals, maintains law and order guarantees security to the people, economises on cost and resources protects the environment and properly delivers services to society. It determines an optimal size of the government and makes best possible of government resources.”* Good governance needs to be explored in the context of a broad visia of development and also with the changes required in the era of globalisat end new communication technologies which are entirely changing lives of the people. RS. Tiwari, in his article, namely, ‘Good Governance, Popul Democracy to Quality Democracy’ writes, ‘Ongoing Global transformat need guidance, to avoid very negative looming consequences and very positive potentials. Markets, civil society, etc., however importas Cannot be relied upon to provide the needed guidance, normatively realistically only governance can do so. However, in order to adequat fulfil crucial future-building tasks, politics must be revitalized, demo must be refocused and governance must be radically redesigned."* and government. the actors in governance, although a major one ‘According to the Oxford Dictionary, ‘governance’ means ‘the act‘Governance—Concept and Application nner of governing or the way of control’, Simply put, it is the process by decisions are made and implemented. Various contexts in which ce can be used are corporate governance, international governance, ynal governance and local governance. It is said,-*Since governance is the process of decision-making and process by which decisions are implemented, an analysis of governance euses on the formal and informal actors involved in decision-making, d implementing the decisions made and the formal and informal yures that have been set in place to arrive at and implement the We can define governance as “the manner in which authority, control power of government is exercised in mobilizing a society's social and nomic resources, to add the issues of public interest”. Government is one of the actors in governance. Difference between term government and governance, as elucidated by R.N. Prasad, is term ‘governance’ has wider meaning than that of the term ment’. Government refers to the machinery and institutional ments of exercising the sovereign power of serving the internal and ial interests of the political community, whereas, governance means process, as well as the result of making authoritative decisions for the fit of the society.” Governance is a process of decision-making and splementation and so, the focus of it is on formal as well as informal stors involved in decision-making and decision implementation. snment is one of the actors in governance. Other actors involved in mance can be NGOs, research institutes, financial institutions, media, cation providers, lobbyists, multinational corporations, associations of ants, cooperatives, etc. These actors of the civil society play an active in decision-making or in influencing the decision-making process. ‘The actors who are involved in governance in the rural and urban vary considerably. In the rural areas, the actors involved are landlords, yperators, peasant associations, religious and social lenders, NGOs, tical parties, etc. Other actors add their influence at the national levels, , lobbyists, MNCs, media, international players, etc. So, the concept of governance transcends beyond the state to neorporate within itself, the civil society organisations. Governance, from this point of view, means the sum of the many ways in which individuals and institutions (public and private) manage their common affairs. ‘The concept of good governarice is becoming more and more relevant. Good governance is a phenomena that depends on the efficient functioning of Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, the three branches of the government, when edch organ of the government performs the tasks ‘assigned with integrity and,commitment. In India, both the central and the state governments require to work in a manner that it ensures66 Public Administration in Theory and Pi responsive, accountable, transparent, decentralised and people fri administration. The government also needs to be citizen-friendly and citizen centric. In an age when non-governmental institutions and the corporat sector is entering into service sector areas, there is a pressure on government to deliver goods to the people. Another facet of good governance is active participation of the peopl with the government, i., in policy making, planning implementation monitoring. An enlightened citizenry is a basic requirement on which governance is dependent. A process of democratic decision-making a active participation of citizens in decision-making would become mot Pronounced in order to ensure accountability. O.P. Minocha explains essential criteria of good governance as, “Political accountability, availabili of freedom, law abiding, bureaucratic accountability, information availab transparently, being effective and efficient, and co-operation betw: government and society”. Governance includes the capacity of the government to desigt formulate and implement policies which are development oriented committed to improvement of quality of life of the people. It also refers the capacity of the government and bureaucracy to cope with emerging challenges of the society. So governance is the capacity of the political administrative system to cope up with the emerging challenges in society. “Governance as a process of establishing reciprocal interaction between and within government, market economy, community is ge prominence. It is a holistic concept that integrates political elements ‘economic aspects and social processes." Good governance has to be visualised in the context of a broad visio of development and globalisation. The concept of governance is becomi wider in the present scenario with the three major players—the state, market and the civil society—playing a significant role in development making it imperative for the government to perform a multi-dimensio restructured role. Origin and Growth Explaining the growing importance of the notion of good governanc T.K. Oommen remarks, “This has become a buzz word in contemp. lexicon, indeed, it is a ruling idea.” The concept of ‘good governance’ wa coined by Third World countries and entered into the vocabulary of public administration since the 1990s, mainly due to the development aid to ‘Third World countries by the western countries in post cold war era. The World Bank, in one of its documents in 1989, highlighted concept of good governance in Sub-Saharan African context. The World Bank identified four dimensions of good governance :