Governance And Development: Inter-Relationship
Governance And Development: Inter-Relationship
The term development is closely related to the process of governance. Every state in the world initiates a series of development activities in order to bring about a positive change in the economy, society and the lives of its citizens.
However, it has been observed that the benefits from development initiatives have not had the desired effects, and that the initiatives have failed to bring about a positive change in the lives of the intended people.
The search for alternative mechanisms to ensure that development- benefits reach the people has been on the agenda of policy-private partnerships has emerged as the viable alternative in providing service delivery in certain sectors of the economy. Thus, the basic approach to development has undergone changes in recent times.
In recent years, development has transformed from mere economic terms to value loaded terms, or, human development. Nobel prize winner AmaartyaSenhas contributed Significantly towards changing the meaning or development sand making it a broad and inclusive concept.
He argued that one way of seeing development is in terms of expansion of the real freedom that the citizens enjoy to pursue the objectives, they have reason to value, and in this sense the expansion of human capability can be, broadly, seen as the central feature of the process of development.
The quality of governance relates to the practice of domestic politics and to public action. Public action is the action by the public or the people rather than just for the public by the government. Looking at the functioning of the various democratic countries, it can be said that the role of the public is not confined to influencing or challenging the decisions of the government. Rather it is to play a constructive and definitive role in the socio-economic development of society, and to reduce social inequalities.
The Asian Development Bank, while emphasing the role of governance in development mentioned that poor governance holds back and distorts the process of development, and has a disproportionate impact on the poorer and weaker sections of society. The four key areas of interrelationship between governance and development identified by the ADB:
- accountability
- Participation
- Predictability
- Transparency
Initiatives by the Government of India, such as the 73rd and 74th amendments which provided constitutional status to grass root institutions, like the panchayat and nagarpalika have been landmark achievements that ensure the involvement of people in the process of governance.
The success of NREGA in bringing a development turn around in rural areas in different parts of India is also crucially linked to the practice of transparency in both development and governance practices.
The participation of people has also brought about a qualitative and significant change in the development process, and its impact on the larger section of the society.