ABSTRACT
The concept of ‘good governance’ is very attractive, and it is this very attractiveness that works to sustain technologies of power that are profoundly at odds with the progressive hopes it seems to suggest. The idea that many of the obvious challenges confronting Africa, particularly in relation to broadly acknowledged demands of development might be dealt with by better, more efficient and more democratic forms of governance does have the appeal of ‘common sense’. Yet, what constitutes common sense is often likely to appeal to very particular interests, and to make sense only in relation to some people’s interests and not others. The concept of good governance used in relation to African development is a good example of an apparently progressive idea that works in practice to legitimate a very specific political project that often is at odds with more democratic ways of life. The good governance discourse works as a form of legitimation that affirms a particular hegemonic order, rather than a democratic politics.
