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CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS
This section interrogates the concepts of democracy, government, governance and good
governance as it affects delivery of service. The idea of democracy offers the prospect to
ISSN: 2278-4853 Vol 9, Issue 6, June, 2020 Impact Factor: SJIF 2020 = 6.882
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participate in decision making in the political process. It renounces unpredictability and
dictatorship and promotes the consent of the governed protecting human personality and ideals
(Ake, 1991). Democracy in whatever form is concerned with recognition of popular sovereignty,
equal opportunity, majority rule, representativeness, minority rights, right to choose between
alternative course of action, popular consultation, consensus on basic concerns and more
fundamentally periodic elections (Ake, 2001; Oke, 2005; Majekodunmi, 2013). The notion of
democracy bestows the opportunity to take part in decision making by all adult citizens (Oke,
2010). The citizenry enjoys wide spread participation in the political process. Democracy
presents a genuine base for the establishment and solidification of good governance through
varying institutional procedures for citizens‘ participation (Touraine, 1991; Held, 1993;
Clapham, 1994; Ghali, 1995).
Governance is the method by which we cooperatively solve the problems and needs of society. It
refers to the institutions of the state which makes decisions within specific administrative and
legal frameworks and allocates public resources in an accounting manner. A governance
perspective encourages partnership between the public, private and non-profit sectors to attain
mutual goals (Hambleton 2004, 2008). It is vital at this junction, to distinguish between
governance and government. Government essentially is a collective body of elected and
appointed body authorized to make laws and arbitrate for the well being of society, while
governance is conceived as the practice and arrangement by which a government administers the
resources of a society to solve socio-economic and political problems in the society (Mann,
1984; Arowolo and Aluko, 2012). Thus, the institution of government exists to provide good,
effective and efficient governance.
Governance may be viewed as the method of exercising effectiveness, efficiency and equity in
the management of public affairs that deals with the production, distribution and utilization of
public goods such as roads, safety and security, electricity, water, education, healthcare, etc,
provided by the state ( Cheema, 2005, UNDP, 1997, 2000). The issue of good governance has
pre-occupied the attention of development agencies and international institutions, these include,
the World Bank and several inter-governmental organizations. These institutions have made the
issue of good governance a critical precondition in their aid and donation policies to countries
with poor track records on governance. The World Bank (2000, 2004) defines good governance
as the procedure or method of exercising authority in the administration of a country‘s economic
and social resources for the purposes of development. By this definition, good governance
represents the use of power by the government to promote democracy, accountability and
transparency; to formulate and implement good policies; to effectively and efficiently direct the
human and financial resources of a country to achieve sustainable development that would
reduce poverty (Yahaya, 1999; Igho, 2006).
Daniel Kaufmann et.al identified six dimensions of good governance which include:
1.
Voice and accountability (VA), the extent to which a country‘s citizens are able to
participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of
association, and free media.
2. Political stability and absence of violence (PV), perceptions of the likelihood that the
government will be destabilized or overthrown by unconstitutional or violent means,
including political violence and terrorism.
ISSN: 2278-4853 Vol 9, Issue 6, June, 2020 Impact Factor: SJIF 2020 = 6.882
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