American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
2018
American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
e-ISSN : 2378-703X Volume-02, Issue-06, pp-01-32 www.ajhssr.com
Research Paper
Open Access
Good Governance and Its Enemies Jan-Erik Lane Professor emeritus at UNIGE, Geneva, Switzerland I. INTRODUCTION The increase in political instability as well as anarchy and anomie in the world is a prominent feature of politics in the 21rst century.It has dire consequences for the population in the country torn apart by cilvil war or anarchy. It consequences for the handling of the climate change question and the general problem of environmental degradation. Global ecology coordination can only work if the participating governments lead strong states. The more governments have to concentrate upon anarchy or civil wars, the less the time and resources would be available for environmental policy-making and ecological protection. And environmental destruction tends to worsen in countries that are not “well-ordered” (Rawls, 1971), as ecological laws are disobeyed and natural resources dissipated until exhaustion or annihilation. Thomas Hobbes focussed upon political stability in his masterpiece Leviathan from 1651. To him the worst thing for men and women was to live in a so-called state of nature, according to Leviathan from 1651: “In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently, not culture of the earth, no navigation, nor the use of commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” This concentration upon anarchy and anomie has received much new relevance with the many failed states in the early 21rst century, falling into the vicious trap of civil war from which it is very difficult to escape. Hobbes put his hope upon political authority as the antidote to the anarchic state of nature. But an authoritarian state leads also to human misery in the form of lack of politicak freedom. When authoritarian rule collapses, it often is followed by anarchy, like in Syria and Libya. Moving from authoritarianism to democracy has proven hard for Muslim countries, as the so-called Arab Spring only succeeded in Tunisia. What is vital for many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America is first and foremost peace, law and order, i.e. getting out of the Hobbesian predicament of anarchy and anomie. Often the problem is the reverse of the Hobbesian predicament, namely authoritarian misrule and political exploitation by the leaders or personnel in power, viz the principalagent problematic in politics that Hobbes completely neglected or failed to recognize, which explains his strage preference for absolute monarchy. On the contrary, rule of law is a global necessity for humanity, because it is the best mechanism against both authoritarian rule and political anarchy. I will try to give arguments for good governance as the rule of law in this treatise.
II. FRIENDS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE: RULE OF LAW INTRODUCTION One may look upon the now unfolding events in Burkina Faso from the point of view of rule of law, interpreted with the so-called principal-agent model in the social sciences. Why, then, do many countries in Africa and Asia score low on rule of law, not resolving the principal-agent problematic successfully? Is this a legacy from Western colonialism or oriental despotism and tribal forms of power? The principal-agent problem in politics and public administration refers to how the people as principal – demos - empower the political leaders and their bureaucrats to govern the country. The principal-agent contract consists of promises about what these agents will do as well as what they may expect in remuneration. The mutual understanding between the principal and the agents – political consideration – tend to become institutionalised. Thus, constitutional and administrative law and praxis makes up political consideration.
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