What is it about?
This article provides an overview on the evaluation of the quality of public governance. It charts the move in the public sector during the 1990s from concern largely with excellence in service delivery to a concern for good governance. It examines what we mean by governance and ‘good governance’ and the dimensions of ‘good public governance’. It demonstrates that there is now widespread interest in measuring not only the quality of services but also improvements in quality of life and improvements in governance processes. It discusses how measures of good governance are being used in different contexts around the world. Finally, it considers how the measurement of good governance can be encouraged, e.g. through awards, inspections, setting funding conditions and empowering stakeholders to demand better evidence.
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Why is it important?
There is now widespread international interest in measuring not only the quality of services but also improvements in quality of life, both overall and in specific dimensions (such as health, social well-being and environment). Moreover, there have recently been some encouraging developments in the measurement of improvements in governance processes. However, the definition of ‘good governance’ is still very much a contested area, so that measures of ‘good governance’ are used in widely different ways in different contexts around the world. While this is not a problem in itself, there would be real benefits from some standardization of approaches, particularly where they made it possible for comparisons to be made. It would, therefore, be valuable if the measurement of good governance could be encouraged on a wider front, e.g. through international awards for ‘best practice’ in ‘good governance’. However, more headway in this area is probably still contingent upon the development and testing of more systematic approaches to the evaluation of the quality of public governance. Only where this has already been undertaken is it likely to be productive to move to more ‘punitive’ mechanisms for promoting such evaluations, such as inspectorates (at national level) or the setting of funding conditions for aid (at the international level).
Perspectives
Who should assess public governance? Traditionally, there has been a fundamental choice here, between self-assessment and external (independent) assessment. Self-assessment is usually more knowledgeable and allows those people to learn the necessary lessons who must later play a key role in the improvement process. However, it is also potentially myopic and self-deluding — and it is less likely to be trusted by other stakeholders. Conversely, external assessment by ‘auditors’ or ‘inspectors’ is more likely to be independent but is often not trusted by the agency — and it often exhibits limited understanding of the context, a tendency to be simplistic or superficial. Moreover, it can be a very expensive process. Finally, there is the possibility of 360° appraisal by relevant stakeholders — this is likely to be independent and to exhibit a better understanding of the context and the core issues (although this may vary between stakeholders). Moreover, its results are more likely to be seen as important by the agency, given that its own stakeholders have delivered the judgements — and the results can be embedded into the ongoing learning relationship between the agency and its stakeholders. However, it is clearly a more complex process, likely to take more time and to be more expensive, unless designed to focus on priority issues. However, this approach probably offers the greatest hope for a successful longer-term process of improving public governance.
Professor Tony Bovaird
University of Birmingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Evaluating the Quality of Public Governance: Indicators, Models and Methodologies, International Review of Administrative Sciences, September 2003, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0020852303693002.
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