Building Good Governance and Resilience in Small States Paul Sutton

Proposition ‘ Nurtured resilience’ result of policy at heart pf policy is ‘good governance’

Paper in Five parts Paper in Five parts concept of good governance overview of good governance in small states two areas to improve governance building more effective government securing better regulation -resilence and good governance -concluding comments

Concept of Good Governance -good governance as a contested concept -good governance as a process and activity -good governance as a complex activity (ODI Framework) 6 functional areas on one axis (civil society, political society, government, bureaucracy, economic society, judicial society) 6 basic principles on other (participation, decency, fairness, accountability, transparency and efficiency) 36 cell framework -existing realities of each state/region as starting point

Overview of Good Governance in Small States World Bank Indicators Voice and Accountability Political instability and Violence Government Effectiveness Regulatory Burden Rule of Law Control of Corruption

Record on Governance Data listed for 44/48 states (2004) population 1.5 million or less Dividing line those above and below world average Good Record of Governance 27 above average (Europe, Asia, Caribbean) 14 below average (Africa) 3 middling (2 in Pacific) Dividing by Quartiles smaller the state the better the record Per capita income high per capita income not necessarily related to good governance overall suggests region matters and size matters

On Individual Indicators Voice and Accountability 34 plus and 14 negative pays to be smaller Political Instability and Violence 38 plus and 10 negative Governmental Effectiveness 26 plus and 22 negative evenly spread Regulatory Burden 25 plus and 17 negative smaller better Rule of Law 31 plus and 17 negative very small is better Control of Corruption 28 plus and 16 negative very small size no difference Areas where small states are weakest Government Effectiveness and Regulatory Burden 300-400,000 and below appears better

Toward more Effective Governament Improving the Public Sector 4 features shaping public sector (exaggerated personalism, limited resources, inadequate service delivery, high donor dependence) not recognised in much development literature Scale not addressed in public sector reform

Encouraging the Private Sector Competition policy Policies difficult to put in place High cost of doing business Firm scale factors (nano-firms) Regulatory policy Meeting high external demands (OFCs) Technical complexities of home regimes Regional – but how to measure?

Resilience and Good Governance Where to begin given complexity and lack of research Does size really matter? Democracy and size related But regime choice? Little change since independence and not toward a specific type of regime Most parliamentary so should parliamentary regimes be encouraged?

Concluding Comments Lots of assumptions and lots of generalisations but few robust conclusions In governance sphere still need to demonstrate small states are different (degree or kind) Need an analytic policy directed work programme – role for Commonwealth Secretariat