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p. 18 of 34 BACK | NEXT Executive Summary Introduction Good governance defined The elements of good governance The Bank’s concern with governance quality The Bank’s approach to governance issues The Bank’s charter and governance activities Need for flexible country-specific approaches Promoting the elements of good governance in Bank operations The Bank’s modalities for enhancing governance in DMCs Resource implications Reporting arrangements

Governance: Sound Development Management : The Bank’s approach to governance issues

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Need for flexible country-specific approaches

The Asian and Pacific region is the site of ancient civilizations, where the science of government has had a long and distinguished tradition. At the same time, differences in political history have resulted in a diversity of political systems and institutional cultures. None of these can reasonably claim to have any comparative advantage from the point of view of governance. Countries accepted to be political democracies seem as prone to fall short of governance standards as those in which parliaments are weak or nonexistent. Indeed, governance quality appears indifferent to the type of political system, and aspects of good governance can be found in countries with widely dissimilar political construction, ranging from the Western democracies to the high-performing economies of East Asia. There has been much analysis and discussion in recent times of the development experience in these DMCs, and interpretations of the phenomenon vary. What is not disputed, though, is that the institutions accounting for East Asian success differed dramatically from those associated with the rise of the Western democracies. Clearly, then, there are many institutional alternatives for managing the development process soundly.

Hence, promotion of the elements of good governance needs to take into account the characteristics and situation of individual countries. The specific features of public administration in each DMC reflect, and respond to, its own political and bureaucratic evolution, cultural norms, and social values. This underscores the need for home-grown approaches for enhancing governance quality in DMCs. Lessons derived from the experience of any one country or group of countries, regardless of how successful it or they may have been, cannot be transplanted directly (i.e., without suitable modification). Instead, the Bank needs to identify general criteria or objectives to guide the search for local solutions, rooted in the public administration traditions of the country concerned.

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