Chapter 24: Governance

Philip Keefer

Governance A growing body of evidence points to governance failures as a root cause of slow and inequitable economic growth and as a defining characteristic of most poor countries. These findings justify placing governance high on any research agenda aimed at better understanding the political economy of economic development. Already, research into governance and development has had a notable impact: some dimensions of governance now sit at the center of academic and policy discussions of economic development. This chapter reviews the known effects of governance on development, the interrelationship among the different dimensions of governance, and the origins of ‘good’ governance. The review highlights where important questions remain to be answered, particularly with respect to the origins of good governance. Although this chapter is a critical review of the governance literature, it turns out that most of that literature does not use the term ‘governance.’ Moreover, there is no agreed ...

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