THE CONCEPT OF GOVERNANCE
2.2 GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
It can be argued that over the years the study of Public Administration has seen many trends come and go. Public Administration currently focuses on the fashionable notion of 'governance'. Rhodes (in Pierre, 2000: 54) asks what governance tells us about the challenges facing the study and practice of Public Administration.
Governance is therefore part of the fight back. Governance literature grapples with the changing role of the state after the varied public sector reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. "Long concerned with the design of public institutions, especially with creating efficient and democratically controlled bureaucracies, public administration found its prescriptions roundly rejected for private sector managfment skills and marketisation" (Rhodes in Pierre, 2000: 54).
2.2.1 Public administration system
The active role played by political, business, government ant::: civil organisations in the social, political and economic spheres, has significant consequences for the functioning of the public administration systems and governance (Adamolekun, 1999:6).
Nurturing and deepening partnerships between various organisations to promote governance is one of the main challenges that public administration will face in the next decade and beyond.
Governance, and good governance in particular, can contribute to the development and strengthening of public administration capacity.
The main elements of governance, namely rule of law, freedoc of expression and association, electoral legitimacy, accountability and transparency and development-oriented leadership, also contribute to such development. The dynamics of these governance elements contribute to an environment where current public administration radically differs from that of the unaccountable, opaque and unresponsive environment of the past era. Adjusting to this new governance context is one of the major challenges for the public administration in African countries in the 21st century and beyond (Adamolekun, 1999: 11).
Adamolekun (1999: 11) argues that... "it would be reasonable to expect that a public administration system that functions in an environment of transparency, with officials fully aware that they would be held accountable for their actions, is likely to perform more efficiently and effectively than one that operates in opaque environment and where the governors are not accountable to the governed."
The public administration system as an instrument of governance is critical to any country's future challenges. According to Adamolekun (1999: 194) two distinctive features of this system have recurred in the literature: liberal democracy and pragmatism. The first (liberal democracy) has helped to ensure an environment conducive to the effective performance of the administrative system. The other (pragmatism) defines a country's economic orientation, which is one of a tactical but firm dedication to the principle that ends should be dictated by realistic means.
The electoral legitimacy of a government and its accountability to parliament constitute two key elements of the governance environment within which the public administration system operates.
2.2.2 Five versions of 'Governance'
According to Hirst (in Pierre, 2000: 14-19) there are at least five versions of governance that are relevant to the study of Public Administration. The term governance is used in five main areas:
Firstly, governance seems to have gained currency In the field of economic development, with the widespread advocacy by international developmental agencies and western governments of 'good governance' as a necessary component of effective economic modernisation. The World Bank, for example, has been a leading advocate of promoting good governance by attaching various compliance conditions to its loans.
According to Hirst (in Pierre, 2000: 14) good governance, therefore, means creating an effective political framework conducive to private economic actions, stable regimes, the rule of law, efficient state administration adapted to the roles that governments can actually
perform and strong civil society independent of the state. Democracy is valuable in this context if it provides legitimation for good governance. Multi-party competition and free elections are valuable in preventing cronyism and corruption and in building public support for development strategies. This is possible only if parties avoid extremism and play the political game by the appropriate liberal rules. Government is thus good provided that the state limits the scope of its action to what it has the capacity to accomplish.
The good governance strategy is based on creating in non-western developing countries a clear separation between a limited state and a largely self-regulating civil society and market economy.
The second main use of the concept of governance is in the field of international institutions and regimes. It is widely recognised that certain important problems cannot be controlled or contained by action at the level of national states alone.
The use of governance is further explained thus ... "the recognition of the possibility of 'governance without government', of international regimes and the growth of private governmental practices and the 'retreat of the state' has led to extensive discussion of the role of international agencies and inter-state agreements and common commercial governmental practices (like arbitration) as methods of governance" Hirst (in Pierre, 2000: 15).
Some scholars have sought to highlight the consequences of the internationalisation of social and economic life for democracy. l':J.ey have pointed out that democracy is threatened with being confined to the national level where it is no longer effective in controlling the full agenda of issues that ought to be within the scope of democratic decisions.
The third usage of the concept of governance is that of 'corporate governance'. 'Corporate governance' is the watchword of those who wish to improve the accountability and transparency of the actions of management, but without fundamentally altering the basic structure of firms in which indifferent shareholders are the principal beneficiaries of the company. Management claims to make policy on their behalf, whilst not being subject to the constraint of the active voice of investors or any other affected interest (Hirst in Pierre, 2000:
17).
The fact that there is a large and growing legitimacy crisis for companies is a problem with the conventional view that corporate governance can be remedied by some modest tinkering. The argument about corporate governance as it is presently conducted has no way of either accommodating or protecting politically, the interests of stakeholders, other than shareholders.
The fourth usage of the concept of governance relates to the growth of new public management strategies since the early 1980s. These raise issues of governance in respect of the two main strgn.ds of policy toward public administration and the public sector generally.
The first issue arises from the privatisation of publicly owned industries and public servIces, and the consequent need for regulating service providers to ensure service quality band compliance with contractual terms. The second results from the introduction of commercial practices and management styles within the public sector, devolving services to agencies that are self- managing within overall policy guidelines and service targets. This generates a new model of public services, distinct from that of pc'olic administration under hierarchical control and directly answerable to elected officials (Hirst in Pierre, 2000: 18).
The flfth usage of governance relates to the new practices of co- ordinating activities through networks, partnerships, and delib~rd.ljve
forums that have grown up on the ruins of the more centralised and hierarchical corporatist representation of the period up to the 1970s.
Such negotiated social governance is growing in salience; typically it is to be found at micro-level in cities, regions and industrial sectors.
Hirst's view (in Pierre, 2000: 19) is that it embraces a diverse range of stakeholders: labour unions, trade associations, firms, NGOs, local authority representatives, social entrepreneurs and community groups.