Law, Governance And The Challenges For Development

Abstract

A definition of law for the purpose of this discourse can be adopted as an instrument for the maintenance of order, a means to ensure good governance and a tool for the purpose of social engineering within a society; the maintenance of order in this definition is intended to include economic order as an inalienable concept in the consideration of development

Certain concepts jump right out for attention on governance: government, the citizens, ‘involvement of the citizens in the decision making process’, response on government policies and decision making, faith and belief in the ability and willingness of government to act in the public interest, fiscal responsibility of government on the finance and other resources of the state, enforceable and justiceable right of access to information by the citizens, a higher degree of transparency and accountability in the public process and in ‘the manner in which the business of the state are managed’.

The challenges for development would include stretching the elasticity of governance on intellectualism, inclusion of quality and proven technocrats, robust but not necessarily big government, taking on of the services of academics and technocrats as office employees for legislators, national and state, as think-tank operators on legal research, comparative policy reasoning and position taking on core development issues affecting society.