Asia Research Centre - Politics of Development (ADRA)

Achieving Sustainable Demand for Governance:
Addressing Political Dimensions of Change

There is no doubt that development policy is in the process of substantial change as it confronts the deeper political aspects of governance reform. Attempts to address ongoing problems in economic and social reform by institutional means or by constructing ˜good governance through administrative and political reforms and training programs have confronted serious difficulties. Reformers have often lacked the means and mandate to address what are seen as problems of political will. They also confront indifference or even hostility to governance agendas from less powerful elements of society who might be expected to embrace reforms that are aimed at eliminating corruption, political repression and economic waste.

These frustrations are now leading development organisations to grapple more directly with the problem of how various social groups might be mobilized more effectively behind programs for institutional reform and good governance “ how demand for governance might be discovered and enabled and progressive coalitions established. The political and social dimensions of governance reform have been analysed by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through its work on ˜Drivers of Change and by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) in its emphasis on ˜power analysis. AUSAID is also addressing the questions of demand for governance in efforts to lift aid effectiveness. Yet these agencies confront difficulties in translating their recognition of the importance of social interest and political power into practical programs for mobilizing support for governance.

This study aims to provide insights into the reasons for these difficulties and how more effective strategies can be developed. We examine the impasses inherent within two main approaches to the task of mobilising political support for governance reform. A first approach has focused on strategies to mobilise civil society groups and NGOs in a process that partly bypasses the established political parties and powerful vested interests. These strategies have defined the PRSP programs of the World Bank (ie strategies of social accountability). They foreground ˜values, ˜participation, ˜inclusion and ˜empowerment as key elements in engaging less powerful elements of society directly into the reform process. Yet the persistent inability of non governmental organisations and local interests to pressure national governments into pursuing pro- poor policies suggests that it is not so easy to effectively bypass entrenched political and social forces and institutions.

Thus, a second key strategy has focused on achieving closer integration with local policies and practices and with partner governments rather than simply bypassing them. This is an important element in the ˜demand for governance approach, increasingly influential in the World Bank and central to the AusAID aid effectiveness program. The problem here is that local policies and practices and partner governments may embody the very interests and relationships that depend upon different forms of governance to those being proposed. For example, it may be pointless to try to mobilise peasant farmers within new forms of agrarian governance where they are beholden to specific elites for finance or land in a network of relationships that require opaque and corrupt forms of governance.

This dilemma requires sophisticated understanding of the complex forces involved in building reform coalitions across state, civil society and the private sector. We bring to these ongoing policy dilemmas a new way of looking at the problem. Rather than focusing on actors or even groups as the key aspects of the problem, our approach is focused on the networks and relationships within which they are situated and which define the allocation of power and wealth. Thus, the distinctive contribution here is to provide a mode of analysis that enables relationships and networks of power and obligation to be identified. This can open the door to the development of programmes and approaches that enable reformers to consider how these relationships may be altered to favour reform. To an important extent, the governance problem will be re-defined from one that addresses immediate aspects of efficiency, transparency and accountability in a generic sense towards one that addresses reorganisation of networks and relationships to shift power in the direction of reform.

Moreover, we aim to provide a way into this new policy paradigm through four case studies explained in detail below. Essentially, these case studies examine specific attempts to involve and mobilise different social interests in reform programs. In each of the case studies we seek to identify the conditions under which local actors are able to form larger coalitions to influence national and international centres of authority. Each will assess the way larger networks and relationships of power inhibit or enable actors to construct broad reform coalitions. They will draw out larger implications for policy reform that emerge from this relational understanding of power.

The project will bring together a cohesive group of researchers with important complementary skills. It will include researchers with expertise in conceptual analysis of political and social change, with strong publication credentials and who are heavily cited in the field. These are combined with researchers who focus on policy analysis and the more practical aspects of building governance at the project level and who bring a strong record of project and consultancy work.

The project includes researchers from the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University and co-researchers from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and the Pusat Studi Sosial Asia Tenggara at Universitas Gadjah Maja, Yogyakarta. Other collaborating institutions are the Institute on Church and Social Issues at the Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, and The Cambodia Development Resource Institute.`

Conclusions drawn from the case studies, both specific and more generic, can be used to re-design and enhance strategies for improving demand for governance and coalition building in similar cases and more generally. The co-ordinators of all four case studies have held discussions with donors and stakeholders regarding the issues being tackled in the studies. Their incorporation into the designated workshops will provide practical responses that will be fed into the final policy documents.

The case studies focus on problems of participatory budgeting, social housing and urban shelter security, the informal economic sector reform and the problems of building institutions for social participation. By examining how networks and relationships of power shape the processes of reform in governance in these specific areas, the study aims to define some principles for improving mechanisms for social accountability and programs for better governance that may be applied to a range of sectors, including the environmental and social sectors.