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| Jochen Tack |
«(…)
“[B]ad governance” (...) refers in the first instance to the
failure of many new democracies to build well-functioning and
effective states, which often leads to lagging economic growth, poor
public services, lack of personal security, and pervasive corruption.
The citizens of such countries understandably feel disappointed by
democracy. (...)“[T]he legitimacy of many democracies around the world
depends less on the deepening of their democratic institutions than
on their ability to provide high-quality governance.” Of course,
bad governance afflicts most nondemocratic countries as well, but
this offers scant consolation to citizens who feel that the
government they have democratically elected is failing them. (…)
[T]hose who wish to strengthen democracy need to pay greater
attention to state-building, including such prosaic matters as public
administration and policy implementation.»
Marc
F. Plattner, Democracy
& Society,
Georgetown University, A Publication of the Center for Democracy and
Civil Society, Fall–Winter 2016, Volume 13, Issue 1, págs 1-6.
Marc F. Plattner is the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy and Co-chair of the Research Council of the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies. This essay, an expanded and updated version of “Is Democracy in Decline?” in the January 2015 issue of the Journal of Democracy, was presented as the Joe R. Long Lecture at the University of Texas - Austin on October 1st, 2015.
