Rereading Good Governance in Light of Different Perspectives: Program of Optimizing Public Policy, Agenda for Transition to Democracy or Hegemony Reproduction Strategy

Abstract

At the outset of 1990 decade and onward, Good Governance Discourse has become a so pivotal discourse in the pervasive domain of national and international developmental circles and institutions and in global development literature as well, that no significant study or investigation can ignore it. However, neither adherents nor critics offer the same understanding of the foundations, assumptions, constituents and indicators of such an idea; rather, each, on the basis of their intellectual presuppositions or practical policy-oriented experiences and normative attitude, paint a different picture of Good Governance Discourse. Scrutinize on the semantic implications system of Good Governance Discourse reveals multiple combination of different semantic layers that reflect at least, three distinct readings or approaches: Technocratic or Policy-Oriented reading, Democratic Politics reading, Critical-Deconstructive reading. Whereas both technocratic and democratic approaches as chief constituents of intellectual mainstream about good governance endeavor to represent this idea as a universal thinking and policymaking framework that applicable to all societies, critical reading attempts to reveal specific ideological presuppositions and implications of good governance discourse. In this article we will attempted to explicate the constituents and indexes associated with the three readings of Good Governance Discourse through the use of a critical discourse analysis method, especially with genealogical approach.

Keywords

• good governance
• technocratic reading
• democratic reading
• critical reading
• sustainable human development