Background

ALADIN has traditionally focused on issues of governance and law in the context of developing countries. A new set of activities that will be organised in 2010 relates to the relationship between governance and elements of the legal system in developing countries. The background for this focus is the finding that policy makers and academics alike are making all kinds of assumptions regarding this relationship, but that it is not always clear how the relationships in development contexts should be seen. In particular, discussions will revolve around issues such as:

  • the relationship between rule of law and governance. In many discussions, the functioning of the rule of law is seen as a component or signal of ‘good’ governance. One may wonder whether the proper functioning of the rule of law is a precondition for good governance, or whether good governance could exist without such a well-functioning rule of law. Hyden, Court and Mease (Making Sense of Governance, 2004) talk about different ‘institutional arenas’ of governance, and juxtapose the judicial system next to five others, such as ‘political society’ and ‘government’. Does this mean that rule of law can be seen as distinct from politics, or is there a necessary link between the two?
  • the relationship between rule of law and governance, on the one hand, and development, on the other. Is the existence of rule of law and ‘good’ governance a precondition for the attainment of a certain level of development? What is the inverse relationship?
  • the relationship between governance and human rights. An important question is whether the human rights situation in developing countries needs to be seen as instrumental to ‘good’ governance, or that the fundamental role of human rights require that they are treated on a par with governance. An important question then is: how can this be made operational, among others in governance assessments?

 

Several cross-cutting issues and questions suggest themselves, such as:

  • the relationship between top-down and bottom-up approaches. How important are the views from people ‘on the ground’ about issues such as governance quality, rule of law and human rights? Or do (international) norms necessarily prevail? What is the room for local specificity and difference of opinion about so-called ‘universal’ norms? To what extent is there a Western bias?
  • the relationship between theory and practice. It seems feasible to theorise about issues of governance, rule of law and human rights, but how can such thoughts be made operational? Or should ‘practitioners’ simply buy in to the theoretical constructions?

 

Activities 2010

On the basis of the issues presented above, the ALADIN Board is planning to (co-) organise the following activities for 2010:

  • A discussion session on political economy approaches to governance, which will take place on 25th February, 12.30 hrs. at ISS in The Hague. Various development agencies have implemented political economy approaches for the assessment of governance and reforms in this area, including the Department for International Development in the UK (the so-called Drivers-of-Change approach), the Swedish International Development Agency (Power Analysis) and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the Strategic Governance and Corruption Analysis or SGACA).

Sue Unsworth will introduce and critically discuss the political economy approach to governance. Sue Unsworth is currently a Research Associate at the Institute of Development Studies and previously served as Chief Governance Advisor at the UK Department of International Development, where she was responsible for the implementation of the Drivers of Change approach and served as advisor to the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the setting up of the SGACA.

 

  • A series of lunch time meetings on the rule of law, governance and development, to be co-organised with the Centre for International Legal Cooperation (CILC), the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Development at the University of Leiden, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. The lunch meetings have been scheduled provisionally for April, June, September and November.

  • ALADIN will act as a co-sponsor of the CILC Anniversary Event ‘The Dutch approach to rule of law, peace and development’, which is organised to celebrate 25 years of CILC and will take place in early 2011.