Governance, good governance and accountability

Detail

1. Government vs governance

• Government is the set of institutions that make laws, carry them out and settle disputes: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

• Governments change after elections, but the state remains. The state is the lasting political body with territory, people and sovereignty.

• Governance is the process of using authority to make and carry out decisions.

• Government is only one actor in it. Markets (businesses) and civil society (NGOs, unions, citizens' groups, media) also take part.

• How the idea arose:

• The World Bank's 1989 report on Sub-Saharan Africa blamed poor growth on a "crisis of governance".
• Its Governance and Development (1992) was the Bank's first report written mainly about governance [5].

• That report defined governance as "the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources for development" [5].

• Why the difference matters: good laws are not enough. What citizens actually experience depends on how power is used, for example how quickly a ration card or pension reaches them.

2. Good governance: meaning and features

• Good governance means governance that is participatory, transparent, accountable, responsive, efficient and equitable, and that follows the rule of law.
• UNESCAP's eight features (UNESCAP is the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific). Good governance is [4]:

#	Feature	Simple meaning
1	Participation	Men and women have a voice, directly or through representatives
2	Rule of law	Fair laws, applied equally and by independent courts
3	Transparency	Information is freely available to those affected
4	Responsiveness	Institutions serve people within a reasonable time
5	Consensus orientation	Different interests are balanced to find the wider good
6	Equity and inclusiveness	No group feels left out
7	Effectiveness and efficiency	Results meet needs and resources are used well
8	Accountability	Decision-makers answer to those affected

• Good governance also aims to reduce corruption, take the views of minorities into account and let the most vulnerable be heard in decisions [4].
• 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission (2nd ARC) (set up in 2005, chaired first by M. Veerappa Moily) linked good governance to ethics and to putting citizens at the centre:
• 4th Report, Ethics in Governance: suggested steps for a proactive, responsive, accountable, sustainable and efficient administration at every level of government [7].
• 11th Report, Promoting e-Governance (December 2008) [8]: promoted SMART government, meaning Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent.
• 12th Report, Citizen Centric Administration – The Heart of Governance: asked for transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly offices [6].
  • It made a Seven Step Model for Citizen Centricity mandatory for every office that deals with the public: define services, set standards, develop capability, perform, monitor, evaluate, and keep improving [6].
  • This model became Sevottam ("uttam seva", or excellent service delivery) [6].

3. Indian roots

• Rajadharma (Kautilya, Arthashastra): the king's duty to govern well and protect his people's welfare.
• Matsya nyaya ("law of the fish"): when there is no order, the big fish swallow the small. In other words, the strong prey on the weak. The state exists to prevent this.
• The Arthashastra on corruption: just as one cannot help tasting honey or poison placed on the tongue, an official handling public money will eat up at least a little of it. Kautilya therefore wanted officials watched and checked. This is an early argument for accountability.

4. Slogans and observances

• "Minimum government, maximum governance" (a slogan since 2014):
• Minimum government: a smaller direct role for the state, fewer procedures, and fewer outdated laws and forms.

• Maximum governance: better delivery through technology, simpler rules and decentralisation.

• Good Governance Day: observed every year on 25 December, the birth anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It has been observed since 2014. It promotes accountability, transparency and citizen-centric public service [2].

• Good Governance Week (Sushasan Saptah): held every year from 19 to 25 December. It aims to carry good governance from districts down to villages [2][3].
• Good Governance Index (GGI): launched by the DARPG (Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances) on 25 December 2019. It ranks the governance performance of states and UTs on 58 citizen-centric indicators [2].
• A critique:
• "Good governance" can depoliticise development. It treats poverty as a technical or management problem rather than a question of power and distribution.
• It can also favour markets, through privatisation and a smaller state, because lenders such as the World Bank first promoted it.

5. Transparency

• Transparency means open access to information on government policies, actions and public spending. With it, citizens can check how and why a decision was made.
• Legal anchors:
• In State of U.P. v. Raj Narain (1975), the Supreme Court read the right to know into free speech (Article 19(1)(a)).

• The Right to Information Act, 2005 turned this into a right that can be enforced.

• Transparency is a necessary condition for accountability. Citizens cannot question what they cannot see.

6. Accountability

• Accountability means that those in power must answer for their actions. It has two parts:
• Answerability: the duty to explain and justify decisions.
• Enforceability: the possibility of real consequences, such as losing an election, a court order, a penalty or prosecution.
• Answerability without enforceability is weak. A report that nobody acts on changes nothing.

Three directions of accountability

Type	Who holds power to account	Tools / anchors
Vertical	Citizens, from below	Elections (Art. 324 Election Commission; Art. 326 universal adult franchise); media, the "fourth pillar" of democracy; civil society
Horizontal	Other state bodies, from the side	Parliament; courts; CAG; CIC; Lokpal; CVC
Social / diagonal	Citizens working with state bodies	Social audits, citizen report cards, public hearings (covered later in this topic under social accountability)

• Vertical accountability means rulers answer to the people below them.
• The vote: an under-performing government can be voted out.
• The media: reports wrongdoing and informs voters. Press freedom comes from Article 19(1)(a).

• Civil society: campaigns, petitions and movements. An example is the MKSS (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan), whose campaign of the 1990s led to the RTI Act.

• Horizontal accountability means one part of the state checks another:

• Parliament:
  • The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha (Article 75(3)). Collective responsibility means all ministers stand or fall together.
  • Question Hour is the first hour of a sitting, when MPs question ministers.
  • Committees such as the Public Accounts Committee examine CAG reports.
• Courts:
  • Judicial review is the power to strike down unconstitutional laws and actions.
  • Courts issue writs under Article 32 (Supreme Court) and Article 226 (High Courts).
• CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General, Articles 148–151): audits government spending. Its reports go to Parliament or the state legislature.
• CIC (Central Information Commission, under the RTI Act, 2005): hears appeals when information is denied.
• Lokpal (Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013): an anti-corruption ombudsman for public servants, including the PM, with some safeguards. An ombudsman is an independent official who looks into complaints against the government.

• CVC (Central Vigilance Commission): made a statutory body by the CVC Act, 2003, after Vineet Narain v. Union of India (1997). A statutory body is one created by an Act of Parliament.

• Decentralisation and accountability:

• Power moves closer to the people through panchayats and municipalities (73rd and 74th Amendments, 1992).

• Leaders become easier to know and to question, so there is "more accountability".

• The threat from misinformation:

• Fake news and paid news give voters false information.
• Voters then reward or punish the wrong things, which weakens vertical accountability.

Prelims Hooks

• Governance was defined as "the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources for development" in the World Bank's Governance and Development (1992) [5].
• UNESCAP lists eight features of good governance. A common trap: "decentralisation" and "privatisation" are not among them [4].
• Good Governance Day is 25 December (Vajpayee's birth anniversary). Good Governance Week runs from 19 to 25 December [2].
• The Good Governance Index was launched by DARPG on 25 December 2019 with 58 indicators [2].
• Sevottam came from the 2nd ARC's 12th Report (Citizen Centric Administration) and its Seven Step Model [6].
• 2nd ARC report–title pairs: 4th Report, Ethics in Governance [7]; 11th Report, Promoting e-Governance [8]; 12th Report, Citizen Centric Administration [6].
• Matsya nyaya (big fish eat small fish) is Kautilya's picture of a society without a state.
• Accountability = answerability + enforceability.
• Vertical vs horizontal: elections and the media are vertical; the CAG, CIC, Lokpal, CVC and courts are horizontal.

Mains Points

• Government vs governance: service delivery now involves markets and civil society. So the state must act more as a regulator and facilitator than as the only provider. Good governance tests whether services actually reach citizens, not just whether laws exist.
• Accountability needs teeth:
• Many watchdogs can explain problems but cannot act on them. Examples are CAG reports left pending before the PAC and vacancies in information commissions.

• Reform ideas: deadlines for acting on reports, filling posts on time, and the 2nd ARC's citizen charters and Sevottam [6].

• "Minimum government, maximum governance": a debate:

• For: it means less red tape, better delivery through technology and decentralisation.

• Against: critics fear it means a weaker welfare state, a market bias and a depoliticised idea of development.

• Vertical accountability is under strain: misinformation, paid news and weak local bodies reduce it. Remedies include media literacy, strong RTI, social audits and real transfer of funds, functions and staff to panchayats.