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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Promoting democractic governance
>> Foreign Aid in the National Interest >> Overview >> Promoting democratic governance Jump to Overview Sections:
>> 50 years of development gains >> Promoting democratic governance >> Driving economic growth >> Improving people's health >> Mitigating and managing conflict >> Providing humanitarian assistance >> The full measure of U.S. development assistance-official and private >> Notes >> Background papers >> ReferencesDemocracy is not strictly essential for good governance. Moreover, bad governance is quite possible under formal democratic structures. But free, fair, and competitive elections do make it possible to remove bad or corrupt political leaders. Thus they encourage leaders to govern more effectively, in the public interest. Democracy also gives citizens nonelectoral means-associations, movements, the media-to monitor officials and participate in policymaking. In addition, leaders in democracies have stronger incentives (and more institutional means and obligations) to explain and justify their decisions and to consult a broad range of constituencies before making decisions. Such participation and debate give the public a stronger sense of policy ownership. As a result policies are more sustainable and government is more legitimate.
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For these and other reasons it is strongly in the U.S. interest to promote both democracy and good governance. The two are mutually reinforcing: when they develop together, resources are used to advance the public good. Public institutions perform their designated roles. Social consensus supports and stabilizes the system of government. Disputes are settled peacefully. And investment flows into the country, attracted by the low transaction costs associated with government transparency and legitimacy and the rule of law. In these circumstances economies grow, human welfare improves, trade expands, political stability and capacity deepen, and countries become more responsible and resourceful members of the international community.
By contrast, when governance is bad and undemocratic-or only superficially democratic-the pathologies of development inevitably have regional and global consequences. Poverty becomes entrenched, reflecting the resources wasted by corruption and distorted investment. Chronic fiscal deficits drain and ultimately drive away international resources. The absence of the rule of law permits-and poverty drives-wanton destruction of the environment and depletion of biodiversity, threatening the global ecological balance (and robbing the world of new medical and agricultural breakthroughs) in ways not fully fathomed.
In the absence of state capacity and will to address public health problems, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and new viruses proliferate, mutate, and cross borders. Venal, unjust regimes fuel antimodernist and religious fundamentalist movements of rage against the West, especially the United States. In the fertile soil of a weak state and feckless legal system, organized crime networks take root, threatening the rule of law internationally through terrorism, piracy, fraud, counterfeiting, kidnapping, money laundering, and trafficking in weapons, drugs, and people.
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Last Updated on: October 07, 2009 |
