Various Aspects Of Governance Research Articles

Assessing regulatory governance for the water and sanitation Agencies in Brazil

This paper focuses on evaluating and benchmarking the governance of regulatory agencies in Brazil's water and sanitation sector. Using a unique database obtained through the application of a questionnaire, we developed an index of regulatory governance and ranked all the agencies in Brazil that participated in the study. The index is an aggregate number of the evaluation of four key governance characteristics: Autonomy, Transparency, Accountability, and Tools & Capacity, including not only formal aspects of regulation but also indicators related to actual implementation. Based on 18 different indices, we analyze the positions of agencies with regard to different aspects of their regulatory governance, considering not only performance in each variable but also scores in the different components of each category. This evaluation identifies particular agency shortcomings regarding governance and indicates needed improvements. Although Brazil has strived to consolidate the governance design of its regulatory agencies, implementing the independent regulator model still faces several challenges. Various aspects of governance can be improved to pursue greater efficiency and quality in providing services, particularly in Accountability and Political Autonomy, where the country shows the largest number of regulatory agencies with the lowest scores. Conversely, almost half of the participating agencies show optimal scores in the Regulatory Autonomy aspect of governance. The results, for the most part, corroborate the institutional theory, in which the role of institutions is paramount for greater efficiency in providing public services, as it reduces information asymmetries and transaction costs and maximizes economic incentives.

Political Disillusionment and the Fine Line Between Independence and Neo-colonialism in Early Post-colonial Africa: A Literary and Historical Perspective from Senegal with Aminata Sow Fall

ABSTRACT Focusing on the role of the French empire in the emergence of political disenchantment in the early post-independance Francophone African society, this paper draws from Aminata Sow Fall’s literary texts La Grève des bàttu (1979) and L’ex-Père de la nation (1987) to examine the political history of Senegal. Analysing these texts, we highlight two key aspects in this political history: the continuous external influence and contemptuous complicity of the former colonial power in various aspects of governance in post-independent Francophone African countries, and the complicity of the post-colonial leaders whose limited conceptualisation and interpretation of independence create conducive conditions for disenchantment. I argue that these dynamic influences which impact the validity of independence in Senegal, also represent the reality of many francophone African societies. To foreground the arguments in this article, I shall employ the post-colonial theory which facilitates the understanding of the impact of imperialism on ex-colonies, and sociological criticism which articulates the relationship between these texts and the social realities of the society from whence they emanate, drawing out specific insights about how they align with the interpretation of the chosen literary sources. In conclusion, I proposed that a re-evaluation of the role of internal and external political players is needed for the advancement and genuine emancipation of post-colonial African societies.

Facilitating Data Sovereignty and Digital Transformation in Municipalities and Companies: An Examination of the Data for All Initiative

Access to comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge in the field of data is crucial for municipalities and regional authorities to make informed decisions and effectively address challenges. The Data for All project 2022-2025 (Data for All 2023) explores the benefits of online tools that provides comprehensive and intuitive access to knowledge in the field of data, specifically designed to support the needs of municipalities and regional authorities.The online tools offer a user-friendly interface that enables easy exploration and analysis of data sets relevant to various aspects of governance, planning, and service delivery. It consolidates diverse data sources, including public records, surveys, and real-time data feeds, into a unified platform. The tools employ advanced data visualization techniques, interactive dashboards, and customizable reports to present complex information in a clear and digestible manner.The benefits of these data access tools for municipalities, companies and regional authorities are manifold. Firstly, it facilitates evidence-based decision-making by providing access to reliable and up-to-date data. Decision-makers can quickly access relevant data sets, conduct in-depth analysis, and identify trends and patterns that inform policy development, resource allocation, and service planning.Secondly, the tools enhance transparency and accountability by making data readily available to the public. Municipalities and regional authorities can leverage the platform to share information on key metrics, performance indicators, and public services, fostering trust and engagement with citizens. Additionally, the tools enable data-driven performance monitoring, allowing authorities to track progress, evaluate outcomes, and continuously improve service delivery.Furthermore, case studies of the tool's implementation and use will illustrate its effectiveness in diverse contexts. For instance, a regional authority may utilize the tool to analyze transportation data, leading to optimized route planning, reduced congestion, and improved public transportation services. Another municipality may leverage the tool to monitor environmental indicators, leading to evidence-based sustainability initiatives and informed land-use planning.In conclusion, the online data access tools will provide municipalities and regional authorities with a powerful resource to leverage data-driven decision-making, enhance transparency, and drive effective governance. Its user-friendly interface, comprehensive data coverage, and customizable features will enable authorities to harness the potential of data for improved service delivery and better outcomes for their communities.

Optimizing Health Protocol Enforcement during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The effort of the prevention and countermeasures in order to break the chain of transmission of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19), it needs to be done in an integrated and comprehensive manner from various aspects of governance, health, socio-cultural and economic aspects. As part of the state of public health emergencies and has beeb designated as a non natural disaster, the regional goverment has the authority to take preventive and countermeasures actions primarily in the enforcement of health protocol during the Covid-19 pandemic in accordance with statutory provinsions. The research objective is to understand the enforcement of health protocols during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research method used is juridical-normative with a statutory approach and a conceptual approach to analyze problems qualitatively. The results and discussion concluded that The formulation of policies and formation of regional legal product that from the basic of legitimacy as well as the basic of legality to act for local goverments in the efoort to optimize the enforcement of prtococols during the Covid-19 pandemic, certaily need to develop specific policy formulation models and becemo a reference for local goverments in policy formulations and formulation reginal legal product in the enforcement of the Covid-19 health protocol. Policy formulation and formation of regional legal product in the enforcement of the Covid-19 health protocol include, and a review of the stages of policy formulation

University governance in flux. The impact of external and internal pressures on the distribution of authority within British universities: A synoptic view

AbstractThis article reviews changes in British university governance over a period of nearly a century. During this time there have been considerable changes in the way universities have distributed authority in governance although the legal frameworks, statutory and legislative, have remained largely unchanged. The article shows that there were distinct phases in the internal balances within governance structures and relates these to external pressures, mostly state driven. Critics of current trends in university governance tend to look back to a utopian traditional model but the evidence suggests that the internal balances were always to a considerable extent contingent on external conditions and fluctuated accordingly. There is no evidence that while the state applied pressure for change in various aspects of governance it substantially intervened to impose constitutional changes except in respect to the Higher Education corporation (HEC) structure for the former polytechnics in 1988 and that, in its most managerial details, was in response to demands from the polytechnic directors themselves. The changes in how authority is distributed were therefore decided by the institutions themselves albeit in response to external pressures. But the article suggests that institutions’ responses were variable and that where a strong research culture existed the accumulation of social capital was such that radical changes in the distribution of authority were resisted. One consequence is that there is now much greater diversity in institutional governance structures with some pre‐1992 universities leaning much more towards HEC models, some HECs edging towards more traditional models and some institutions preserving significant elements of authority which others would regard as utopian. In Britain, reputation, research success and brand image are closely associated with the latter.

Determinants of Board Structure: Evidence from India

The paper analyse the role of directors in sustainability of business to ensure good corporate governance. The objective is to highlight the economic and strategic implications of independent role of directors with regards to regulatory framework in India in the light of major corporate governance failure at India's fourth largest software company, Satyam Computers in January 2009. The present paper highlights the long-term strategic perspective for India as far as corporate governance and business sustainability are concerned. The data set consist of nifty companies, from Prowess corporate data base. The paper tries to analyse the impact of various company characteristics and board size on independence of directors. The findings include analysis of role of independence in decision making of corporate including director as far as overall governance is concerned and possible recommendations for future so as to carve out a voluntary good governance culture on a large scale among corporate entities. There is lack of reliable data on various aspects of governance and independence of director. Therefore, the study focused on the availability of data and compliance to regulatory framework in India along with future implications as regards to new Companies Act 2013. All stakeholders including government, investors, corporate sector, regulatory bodies and citizens need clarity on the role of directors, and other key managerial personnel in sustainability of interest of all the stakeholders and overall growth of corporate in India. In India, there is dearth of research in the area of corporate governance practices. This paper aims at highlighting the historical relationship between independence of directors; and overall business sustainability.

The problems of measure modern management

One of the modern trends in quality management is the need to measure. Measure everything is possible, the main thing to choose the right criteria. However, the measurement is not always allows us to interpret the situation correctly. This article reviewed examples of when measurement is just not working, and, moreover, harm management processes. Today, the quality of management is the need to build indexes and characteristics. The main tool of comparison of various aspects of governance in the world is based on them, both on the state level and at the level of individual corporations. Today, the measurements are the most popular in modern trends of management. Measurement is a motivating element. The problem of adequate construction of the measuring instrument, which allows on the basis of the measurements to plan the necessary changes in accordance with the changing environment. The article describes the basics and the basic principles of such sciences as metrology and qualimetry that traditionally belongs to the field of engineering, but so necessary to modern management. On concrete examples the author considered the applicability of the measurement bases in everyday life, in business management and public administration level.

Civil Society, Indian Elections and Democracy Today

Civil society in Independent India has perhaps never been as active as it is today, except in the years before and during the emergency. We explore the role it has played in strengthening and deepening democracy. We focus largely on the work done on introducing transparency, and on raising voter awareness. As a result of this work, a lot of public data is available on the extent of crime and money in elections and politics. We analyze this and point out some implications for democracy and good governance. A brief outline of developments since Independence shows that the number of parties has grown considerably along with crime and money. As the number of parties, it became possible to win elections with a lower vote share, making it easy for big money to influence or buy a smaller fraction of votes. Meanwhile as population grew, an elected MP now represents over 15 lakh voters on average, and an MLA over 2 lakh. This is the largest number by far anywhere in the world. The data on candidates and elected representatives’ criminal and financial record is analyzed in this context. It shows that the chances of winning increase considerably for candidates with more wealth. Unfortunately it also shows that those with serious criminal cases pending against them also have a higher chance of winning. The average wealth of over 62,800 candidates analyzed is Rs.1.37 crores, which goes up to Rs. 2.03 crores for third place candidates, Rs.2.47 crores for runners up, Rs.3.8 crores for winners, Rs.4.27 crores for winners with a criminal record, and Rs.4.38 crores for winners with serious criminal cases. Meanwhile, data from India’s largest ever citizen survey of over 262,000 people on various aspects of governance show that people are unhappy with Government. There are gaps in the roles civil society has played so far, and some strategic choices it needs to make. We discuss the way forward in this context. If this is done well, change is possible.

Religion, Law, and Governance in Malaysia

Although the number of provisions pertaining to Islam in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia is small, the substance of the religion practically permeates various aspects of governance in Malaysia. This seems to be quite natural given that Islam stands at the very heart of Malay civilisation and culture. Apart from this, the Malays form the majority of the country’s population. This would explain why - despite the fact that Malaysia belongs to the Westminster and Common Law systems of government and law - the Islamic character and essence of the polity remain visible. This is indeed interesting given that the country was governed by Europeans for several centuries – starting with the Portuguese who defeated the Sultanate of Malacca in 1511. As of now, the author argues that it would be possible to have a full-fledged Islamic system within the existing constitutional framework. According to him, the Malaysian experience could serve as an example of how a modern system of governance could co-exist with traditional Islamic values and systems. In recent years, the country has made significant progress in the field of Islamic banking and finance, as well as the systemisation of Islamic courts and education. Even the civil courts have eventually been able to strike a balance between the modern idea of liberty and Islamic notions of rights; something that was evident even in cases involving the question of apostasy. Interestingly enough, all of these achievements have been accomplished within the existing framework of the Constitution.

Aggregating Governance Indicators

In recent years the growing interest of academics and policymakers in governance has been reflected in the proliferation of cross-country indices measuring various aspects of governance. The authors explain how a simple variant of an unobserved components model can be used to combine the information from these different sources into aggregate governance indicators. The main advantage of this method us that it allows quantification of the precision of both individual sources of governance data and country-specific aggregate governance indicators. The authors illustrate the methodology by constructing aggregate indicators of bureaucratic quality, rule of law, and graft for a sample of 160 countries. Although these aggregate governance indicators are more informative about the level of governance than any single indicator, the standard errors associated with estimates of governance are still large relative to the units in which governance is measured. In light of these margins of error, it is misleading to offer very precise rankings of countries according to their level of governance: small differences in country rankings are unlikely to be statistically - let alone practically - significant. Nevertheless, these aggregate governance indicators are useful because they allow countries to be sorted into broad groupings according to levels of governance, and they can be used to study the causes and consequences of governance in a much larger sample of countries than previously used (see for example the companion paper by the authors,Governance matters, Policy Research Working Paper no. 2196).

Right to water and access to water: an assessment

AbstractThis paper examines the scope for a rights‐based perspective on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by focusing on right to water. The paper adapts Hohfeldian framework of elements of a right developed by Wenar. According to this, a right should be interpreted in terms of powers, privileges, claims and immunities. This framework highlights the inter‐connections between various aspects of governance and the effectiveness of a right to water. The conjecture whether the poor are more likely to have access to water when there is a right to water is examined with data (from WHO–UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme) pertaining to a small sample of countries where a right to water has been promulgated and some others where such right has not been promulgated. The impact of governance on improving access to water is examined using indicators from Governance Matters V (Kaufman et al., 2006). This analysis suggests that mechanisms of governance may be more important in improving access to water than a formal articulation of a right to water. Some challenges to operationalising a right to water are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Resource intensity, institutions, and development

Summary. — We examine the relationship between resource abundance and several indicators of human welfare. Consistent with the existing literature on the relationship between resource abundance and economic growth we find that, given an initial income level, resource-intensive countries tend to suffer lower levels of human development. While we find only weak support for a direct link between resources and welfare, there is an indirect link that operates through institutional quality. There are also significant differences in the effects that resources have on different measures of institutional quality. These results imply that the ‘‘resource curse’’ is a more encompassing phenomenon than previously considered, and that key differences exist between the effects of different resource types on various aspects of governance and human welfare. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Macroeconomic Effects of Foreign Aid: A Survey

Research on the macroeconomic effects of aid has expanded rapidly in recent years. In this paper, we provide a survey of this literature. We start by reviewing some theoretical models that suggest a positive impact of aid on investment and growth. We then discuss the empirical evidence, giving particular attention to the role of institutions and policies in determining aid effectiveness. As a general conclusion, we suggest adopting a more disaggregate perspective with respect both to different types of aid and to various aspects of governance.

Politics and performance: the implications of emerging governance arrangements for urban management approaches and information systems

Challenges to traditional public sector approaches to urban government have had an impact on various aspects of governance and management, including political arrangements, decision making processes, ways of ensuring accountability, the allocation of roles and responsibilities between public sector agencies and other potential service providers and between different levels of government, and the mobilisation and allocation of financial resources for urban development. These are discussed, drawing in particular on recent research on urban poverty and governance in ten cities in the South. The changing approaches to urban government and management have been accompanied by attempts to define criteria by which urban governance arrangements and performance can be assessed, which are summarised and critically evaluated. Finally, the potential value of a particular set of tools (GIS) for emerging approaches to urban governance is assessed. Their potential for improving the information available to all governance actors is recognised. However, because of their cost and technological and managerial demands, as well as the limited effectiveness of spatial planning and inequalities in access to information, plans for their use must be financially, institutionally and politically realistic.

Is Good Governance Rewarded? A Cross-national Analysis of Debt Forgiveness

This article analyzes which factors determine the allocation of debt forgiveness. In particular, the role played by various aspects of governance is examined. The results indicate that countries' need is a powerful determinant for debt forgiveness, whereas creditors' political interest is not, apart from United States military interests. Of the various aspects of governance, only the extent to which governments are accountable, respect democratic rights as well as refrain from imposing burdens on business have a statistically significant influence. In order to create the right incentives and to ensure effectiveness of scarce financial resources, countries with good governance should be rewarded with a higher share of total debt forgiveness in the future.