ABSTRACT
For over two decades the pursuit of good governance has been in vogue among international development agencies as the determined path to social and economic development. The discourse of good governance promises that with the right alignment of state, market and civil society actors, and the right mix of technical solutions (Odugbemi and Jacobson 2008), a governance environment can be created where markets flourish, governments are efficient and accountable, and all people benefit, even the most marginalized. Such promises make it a very seductive discourse. Adding to its appeal is the way views of development as neoliberal economic growth have been merged with alternative discourses such as participation and human rights. It is a discourse of inclusion where both the attainment and continuation of good governance require that everyone ‘can, indeed must be included’ (Craig and Porter 2006: 2). As the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (1997: 16) has stressed ‘[e]ach domain of governance — the state, the private sector and civil society — has a unique role to play’.
