Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Decentralization and Governance
Decentralization and Governance
Federalism
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
a. Both of them have two tiers of government one at center and one at
state or province.
b. Both of them have written constitution which formally allocates
legislative including fiscal powers to the two orders of government
ensuring autonomy for each other.
c. Both of them have a set of procedures and institutions for
facilitating or conducting relations between governments.
d. Both of them are based on the devolution of powers.
e. Both of them share open interaction between the Centers and
Province or States.
f. Both of them can have variations in rules and regulations at Central
and Provincial or State levels.
g. Both of them promotes social inclusion and use of local resources.
Difference between Coming together and Holding together federalism
What do you mean by the term governance? Discuss the importance of local
governance and global governance with example.
Governance:
It came from the Latin verb "gubenare" or more originally from the Greek word
"kubarnein" which means " to steer". Basing on its etymology, it refers to the
manner of steering or governing or directing and controlling group of state or
people. It is commonly defined as the exercise of power or authority by political
leaders for well-being of their country's citizens or subjects. It is a complex
process by which some sectors of the society wield power and enact and
promulgate public policies which directly affect human and institutional
interactions and economic and social development.
a. Participation
b. Equity
c. Transparency.
d. Accountability
e. Rule of law
f. Legitimacy
2. It promote good governance and build partnership with Civil Society, Private
Sector and Government units of the local level.
3. It helps to express the will of the local people.
5. It helps to have the authority to right to decide local taxes on the territory.
Many local bodies were active during this crisis. The leaders of local
government sealed their own local area after they were hit by COVID-19. Some
leader were engaged in distributing relief. During this crisis, when Federal
Government of Nepal is facing criticism from every sector of the society, local
bodies has helped the people.
Global Governance
After COVID-19 hit the world, many global governance institutions like
WHO, UN, OECD, EU, etc became aware. They started the guidelines to
fight against the COVID-19, some countries like Taiwan, India shared their
vaccines, masks with other countries, some provided economic assistance to
those countries who are badly hit with the COVID-19. In this time of
COVID-19, we can see the work of global governance institutions.
Define decentralization. Compare and contrast between deconcentration, power
delegation and devolution type of decentralization.
Decentralization
It is the establishment of local bodies outside the regular bureaucratic structure.
It is the transfer of authority and responsibility for public functions from the
central government to subordinate or quasi-independent local bodies or private
sector. It refers to the restructuring of authority so that there is a system of co-
responsibility between the institutions of governance at the central, regional and
local levels.
Strengths of decentralization:
1. Emphasis bottom up approach
2. Decision making will be democratic
3. Increasement in participation and accountability
4. Decision making will be closer to the public
5. better able to address the local needs effectively
6. good way of training and developing leaders
7. organizational change due to the interactions
Drawbacks of the Decentralization:
1. Worsens the service delivery in the absence of effective controls and oversight
2. deteriorates service quality due to over burden and out of capacity of local
government
3. local elites gain undue advantage by overcoming rules
4. creates new ethnic and religious rivalries
5. may lead to regional imbalances
Deconcentration
Delegation
Devolution
Federal : Our country adopted federalism in 2075 BS. Our country is divided
into 7 Provinces with One Federal Government. The agenda of federalism came
during People Movement II. Basically, federal means a country which has
adopted federalism and is divided into states or provinces. After the declaration
of Constitution 2075, Nepal was declared as Federal country.
Democratic: Our country got democracy in 2007 BS from the autocratic Rana
Regime. After Democracy, people appointed their leaders and formed Interim
Constitution 2007 which declared Nepal as Democratic Country.
Republic: Our Country became republic in 2063 BS after the last Shah King
Gyanendra resigned from his throne and gave the throne to the people. Later the
Interim Constitution of Nepal 2063 BS declared our Country Federal
Democratic Republic.
Good Governance:
It is a subset of governance wherein public resources and problems are
managed effectively and in response to critical needs of the society. It is a
term which used to encompass: full respect of effective participation, human
rights, rule of law, multi actor partnerships, accountable processes,
pluralism, transparent and institutions, an efficient and effective public
sector, legitimacy, access to knowledge, information and education. It refers
to the public administration process that maximizes the public interests.
Importance of Good Governance:
1. It conducts and manage public affairs and resources to guarantee
human rights.
2. It maintains public participation, accountability and transparency
3. It makes the government work effectively and legitimate in
administrative system.
4. It promotes and sustains holistic human development.
Elements or Characteristics of the Good Governance:
1. Participation
Participation means active involvement of all stakeholders in the
process of development by policy making, prioritizing issues,
accessibility to public goods and services and also allocating
resources. It is the political dimension of the good governance. Good
Governance requires the participation of all men and women including
physical challenged one. Traditionally, the participation was
recognized as the "top-down approach" which refers to the
government monopoly in both responsibilities and power. But today,
the government works in hand with other sectors of the society and
considers them the partners of government in attaining different goals
which is knows as "horizontal system" or " bottom-up approach".
From human rights stand, people have the rights to participate in
decisions that affect them and also seek justice if they are denied of
these rights.
2. Rule of Law
It means that everybody in the system is equal before the law and the
law is implemented in impartial manner. It is an essential ingredient of
Good Governance and cornerstone of democracy. Good Governance
requires fair legal framework that are enforced impartially and
protects human rights. Through the rule of law people express their
will and exercise their soverignity. It sees that the operating and
functioning environment of the society must be based on objectives
laws and there must not be any fancies of anyone who is powerful or
influential. The rule of law demands the following things:
a. People and civil society renders habitual obedience to the rule of
law.
b. Government acts within the functions and powers prescribed by the
law.
c. Laws are responsive to the needs of the society.
The absence of rule of law is anarchy and it happened when people act
in disregard of the law or the government acts beyond their powers.
The strengthening of rule of law sees reforms in enforcement
agencies. In conclusion, rule of law means "peace and order",
"absence of corruption","impartial and effective judiciary system",
"observance and protection of human rights" and "clear,publicized and
stable laws".
3. Equity and Inclusiveness
Equity means everyone is equal and has equal opportunity in a
community disregard of his or her cast, gender, color, race, religion or
faith and social status. Inclusiveness means consideration of interests,
aspirations and opinions of all individuals and groups living in a
society while formulating plans and policies meant for the society.
Equity and inclusiveness are the bases of the human rights standard of
a society and essence of social justice as a fundamental principle of
governance within a human community. A society's well being
depends on ensuring that all its members feel that they have
partnership in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of the
society. It is based on the principle that who have less in life should
have more in laws.
4. Transparency
It means that processes, institutions and information are directly
accessible to all the people of the society. It is built on the free flow of
information. It promotes the openness of government action, decision
making processes and consultative processes among public sector and
all stakeholders. It can be strengthened through the citizen's right to
information with a degree of legal enforceability. As an indicator of
the good governance, it means people are open to information
regarding decision making process and the implementation of the
same. Lack of transparency in the society creates environment for
corruption which is harmful to the progress and welfare of the society.
5. Responsiveness
It means that the requests and requirements of the people are
addressed in the punctual manner. A deliberative unnecessary delay
by the service providers in performing their duties towards the people
must be avoided at any cost. It must be ensured that service delivery
system must have a provision of the time and period clause to
accomplish their duties within a predictable time.
6. Consensus and Legitimacy
Consensus usually means collaboration rather than compromise. To
secure the peace and harmony there must be the consensus among the
various stakeholders, hence, the governance structure and functioning
obtains legitimacy from whole community. To meet the consensus, a
strong, impartial and flexible meditation structure must be established.
Instead of one opinion being adopted by a plurality, stakeholders are
brought together until a convergent decision is developed. Consensus
decision making is a process that not only seeks an agreement of most
participants but also mitigates the objectives of the minority to achieve
the most agreeable decision. Public hearings or consultations in
arriving at a consensus are necessary in the process of governance.
7. Effectiveness and Efficiency
It is the technical aspect of the good governance. The concept of
efficiency in the good governance covers the sustainable use of natural
resources and the protection of the environment. Good governance
requires that the institutions, processes and actors could deliver and
meet the necessities of the society in a way that available resources are
utilized efficiently and effectively. Efficiency and effectiveness of
resources must go necessarily together to ensure the best possible
results for the community. To achieve effectiveness and efficiency,
good governance principles prescribe a competitive economic
environment, capacity building of the institutions and required training
to the personnel.
8. Accountability
It means that decision makers in the government sector are answerable
to the public as well as to the institutional stakeholders for their action
or lapses. It also means answerability or responsibility for one's action.
Principle of Accountability:
a. Every person or group is responsible for their action most especially
when their acts affect public interests.
b. Information sharing and transparency must be promoted by
government structures.
Constitutional bodies refer to those institutions that are created by the
Constitution itself. They are different from statutory bodies which are created
by a law or statute. The Constitution of Nepal 2015 provides for several
constitutional bodies and commissions which have their own value and
importance. Constitutional Bodies in Nepal are mentioned below:
The responses to the demand for public policies primarily depends upon
which resources are required and how they may be required. There are
especially three types of resources used for formulating public policies:
Stage V: Evaluation
Nature of Public Policy
According to Anderson (1975), “the nature of public policy as a course of action
can be better or fully understood if it is broken down into number of categories,
these being policy policy demands, decisions, statements, outputs and
outcomes. In practice, they will not necessarily occur in a neat sequential
order."
1. Policy demands
Policy demands are the claims made by individuals or other actors with the
government in a political system for action or inaction on some perceived
problem. Such demands may range from a general insistence that the
government ought to do something to a proposal for specific action on the
matter. There are various factors which gives rise a need of policy demand.
They may be as for examples, the ideology of democracy, political factor,
economic factor, and pressure of general public (Mather 2001). This has
enforced the government to formulate a particular policy to overcome the
problem. In the Nepalese case, an increasing pressure from the general public to
band polluted vehicles in Kathmandu valley had forced the government to
realize a need to control pollution produced by such vehicles. Similarly, due to
an increasing pressure from donor communities to undertake economic reform
programs to achieve macroeconomic stability, had forced the government to
realize a need of economic reforms in Nepal in the decade of eighties.
2. Policy decisions
Realizing a need of policy, the next step is to make policy decision. Policy
decisions are the decisions made by public officials that authorize or give
direction and content to public policy actions as accordance to the demand of
individuals or other actors of a political system (Anderson 1975). It includes
decision to enact a law or policy by the parliament, issues executive orders or
edicts, promulgate administrative rules, or make important judicial
interpretation of the-law. For example, after realizing the need to control
environmental pollution, the government enacted the Nepal Mass Emission
Standard 1994. In the same way, realizing need to reform the economy, the
government initiated various programs including external sector reform,
privatization and liberalization, and financial sector reform to liberalize the
economy after the restorati of a multiparty democracy in 1990. All these are
policy decision made by the in course of materializing policy demand.
3. Policy statements
Policy statements are a formal expression or articulation of public policy They
include legislative statutes, executive orders and decrees, administrative rules
and regulations, and court opinions. In addition, it includes statement and
speech made by public officials indicating intentions and goals of realize them.
The policy statements are sometimes ambitious and policies issued by different
agencies of a political system may be responsibility of the top political leaders
to make the policy statement as realistic as possible and to reconcile conflicting
interest of the stakeholder.
5. Policy outputs
Policy outputs are tangible manifestation of public policies. It is what the
government does as distinguished from what it says - it is going to do.The
matters like tax collection, highway construction, provision of irrigation
facilities, distribution of drinking water telephone lines and electricity, and
school enrollment ae policy output. As for example, during the Ninth Plan, the
government had the policy statement to bring down poverty level to 32%, it is
the policy output.
6.Policy Outcomes
Policy outcomes are the consequences for a particular social group or groups,
intended or unintended, that flow form action or inaction by the government
(Anderson 1975). Policy outcomes show effect of public policies on life of the
people. In other words, it shows whether there is divergence between policy
output and policy outcomes, i.e.. commitment and outcome. In the Nepalese
context, several programs have been implemented to reduce poverty, to reduce
inequality, and to generate employment opportunities. In order to see the policy
outcome, we should study about their effect in the society, on where the policies
are being implemented. As for example, how much improvement was brought
on the living standard of the people, how much of employment opportunity was
generated by the programs, how much of the inequality was reduced h the
poverty alleviation programs, how much of the poor got institutional credit
facilities. Questions such as these may be quite difficult to answer, but they
direct our attention to assess the impact of public policy.