Enhancing Public Governance in Fragile States

Abstract

Since the 1990s, academics, international organizations, and development practitioners have had to come to grips with the concept of governance. Although absent from the development vocabulary of the 1960s, the term has evolved considerably.1 Initially, it was narrowly defined: the Bretton Woods institutions, for example, defined governance as management of the public service and public finances in order to obtain aggregate economic growth, and institutions such as the United Nations considered governance only from the standpoint of democracy.2The concept has also evolved considerably in Canada.3 Accountability and citizen participation were initially held to be the strategic dimensions of governance. Subsequently, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) stressed other elements, such as democratic institutions, the public sector, and human rights. Since 2000, Canada has broadened its definition of the term by establishing a link between democratic institutions and security. CIDA aimed in the short term to promote security and fair elections, and in the long term to reduce poverty. Since 2000, programs to enhance governance have had, in general, five components: democratization; human rights; the rule of law; public institutions and capacity-building; and conflict prevention, the maintenance of peace, and security sector reform.4With the passage of time, however, it has become apparent that the real problem with the concept is less its definition than its actual application. According to Ian Smillie, the enhancement of good governance in different developing countries has given rise to confusion or even controversy. For example, he writes that the link between democracy, human rights, the reduction of conflicts, and economic development has not been clearly proven, and efforts to support civil society have sometimes met with failure. Sue Unsworth attributes the principal causes of these failures to the confused nature of programs and international donors' lack of familiarity with the political and institutional context of the country in question. According to Unsworth, these programs aim to implant an implicit model of good governance based on Weberian norms and the democratic political systems of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development states. In the developing world, however, lack of political legitimacy and administrative capability is a significant constraint on economic and social development. Because good governance requires collective action on the part ofthe state and various civil society actors, developing countries face an enormous challenge. They must engage in state-building while simultaneously attempting to put in place the economic, social, and political institutions that will enable them to participate in an increasingly globalized world.Governance faces additional challenges in the context of frague states such as Haiti. Haiti has experienced repeated political crises and economic instability, and currently ranks 148th on the human development index. Life expectancy is only 53 years and an estimated two-thirds of the population live below the poverty level. After the events leading to the 2004 departure of President Jean- Bertrand Aristide, a transitional government ruled for two years and a multinational force was deployed under the terms of a UN security council resolution.According to Robert Muggah, the fragility of the Haitian state can be explained by both endogenous and exogenous factors. The four endogenous factors are: the concentration of political power in the hands of a small political and commercial elite; the practice of highly personalized politics by the Lavalas and the opposition parties; endemic corruption; and a macroeconomic environment characterized by weak exports and a long-term dependence on international aid.5 Among the exogenous factors, Muggah lists the lack of security; the history of interventionism; reforms undertaken either unilaterally or multilaterally, such as structural change programs; and the troubled relationship between donors and the Haitian authorities. …