Governance and small states

Abstract

This paper attempts to assess how small states perform in terms of governance using the so- called Kaufmann Index as a yardstick.

The issue of “good governance” has been at the centre of the development debate for many years. It has major normative implications and it is therefore subject to political and cultural interpretations. However, there is a broad measure of agreement on what might be termed essential elements such as open, transparent, accountable, efficient, effective and responsive administration. Respect for human rights and the rule of law is also generally included in the definition of good governance. Governance is very important for all states, but it is particularly important for small states, which are often characterized by very limited resources endowments and are very exposed to the negative effects of external shocks. In the quest for economic development, effective, stable and accountable governments are indispensable. Recently, good governance has been associated with economic resilience building, mainly for small states, which are very highly prone to external shocks and the promotion of good governance in the public and private sector of small states was considered to be a major element of an integrated approach for resilience building (Briguglio et al., 2006). The paper is organised in five sections. Section 2 which follows this introduction deals with the meaning of good governance, while section 3 describes a number of governance indicators, focussing on the Kaufmann Index. Section 4 uses the Kaufmann index to assess the performance on small states in terms of good governance. Section 5 concludes the paper.