Is Good Governance Good for Development?

Abstract

While good governance is a worthy goal by itself, it is not a prerequisite for economic growth or development. This volume challenges the conventional good governance paradigm favoured by the donor community. It exposes the methodological shortcomings of the commonly used governance indicators developed within the World Bank. It highlights the conceptual limitations or lack of clarity of good governance and debunks the central plank of the good governance hypothesis that good governance causes economic growth. The volume demonstrates that good governance can mean many things, and countries possessing features of good governance can be different both structurally and institutionally. Countries that are developed now did not have the ideal features of good governance - these features evolved with economic growth.