Open a publication concerning social or economic development these days and you will almost certainly trip over the terms "governance" and its tongue-tying derivative, "governability."
Both words seem to allude to a positive process. Indeed, governance generally refers to how power is exercised in managing a country's economic and social resources. But more often than not, these words pop up in discussions of bad government, poor management, and social and economic failures. At times, they become tactful ways of referring to the generic evils of lawlessness and corruption.
Why have these obscure terms acquired such star status in recent years? Their prestige was made all but official in 1996 when the 23 heads of state from Ibero-American countries, meeting for a summit in Chile, gave top billing to the issue of "governability" in their final agreement, the Declaration of Viña del Mar.
According to Edmundo Jarquín, chief of the Bank's State and Civil Society Division, the new prominence of these words reflects a growing awareness of the link between economic development and the quality of government.
Since early this decade, says Jarquín, the IDB has worked to introduce a broader meaning to the idea of "governability" or "good governance." Specifically, the Bank has sought to reinforce the connection between good governance and political stability, which is in turn dependent on domestic socioeconomic conditions, the strength of democratic institutions and citizen input into the public decision-making process. Stability also requires an effective, reliable legal system, efficient management of public funds, government accountability and social equity. In this context, "governability" means not whether a country can be governed, but how well it is governed.
This broader interpretation was evident in the Declaration of Viña del Mar, in which the signatory countries pledged to uphold democracy, political pluralism and respect for human rights by strengthening political institutions, reforming public administration and decentralizing the state.
Ten years ago, most Latin American and Caribbean governments were consumed with the challenge of reforming financial systems, lowering trade barriers, and integrating their economies into the global market. Now that a comparatively broad consensus on the need for those changes has taken root in many countries, attention is shifting to problems in national institutions and internal affairs. These problems usually grow out of weak judicial and legislative institutions, outdated legal frameworks, corruption and inefficiency in public administration. Known as "problems of governability," they have taken center stage in the public arena, and gained a prominent place in the political lexicon.
Among people who are neither politicians nor development experts, conversations about governance usually end up being about a subject that will never go out of fashion: the rule of law. In fact, one possible measure of governability--a "governance index," if you will--might be derived by measuring the extent to which different aspects of the rule of law are upheld in a particular country. Is the integrity of the Constitution respected? Does everybody abide by the same "rules of the game," be it in business or politics? Are the courts consistent, independent and impartial?
These are tough questions for any society to answer, of course, and that helps explain why newspaper editors in Paris and Hong Kong are looking up "governability" just as often as their peers in Quito and Brasilia.
Buzzwords thrive on the Internet, as evidenced by the hundreds of items that crop up in a search for "governance." The United Nations Development Programme's Management & Governance Network (magnet.undp.org) is a good place to start. It offers articles and links to related web sites.