Policies and Institutions: “Unpopular among some—or even a majority—of the population”

This chapter compares and contrasts a wide range of academic literatures on good governance, democracy and human rights (GDH) in order to illustrate how complex and multi-dimensional these the concepts are. In each case, it asks: “If GDH, in general, are multi-dimensional and contested concepts, does the UN use them in ways that are nevertheless clear and consistent?” The short answer is no. In each case a brief review of global and African regional UN documents reveals that GDH are used in ways that are often vague and contradictory. It is this finding, and moreover its implications for UN praxis, which is probed in-depth in subsequent chapters.