A Philosophy of Good Governance

The concept of ‘good governance’ first gained prominence as a standard upon which donor agencies conditioned their aid to recipient governments. It then expanded to be a general measure of country development. Today, some political scientists take it to name a fundamental normative ideal against which all governments should be assessed, related to but distinct from other ideals such as ‘legitimacy’, ‘justice’ or the ‘social good’. Others vehemently reject such pretensions. However, an increasing anxiety about the quality of government institutions and apparent declining popular support for them across the world does seem to demand an answer, if there is one, to the question: what is ‘good’ governance’? With notable exception, philosophers have largely stood back from such debates. This is despite the fact that ‘good’ governance appears to bear its normative concern on its face. Taking up this opportunity, in this paper, I shall argue that a philosophical perspective on the concept of good governance yields a novel conception.