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Good Government Means Different Things in Different Countries
Author(s) -
ANDREWS MATT
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01465.x
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , good governance , corporate governance , proposition , set (abstract data type) , work (physics) , best practice , economics , business , public management , public economics , public relations , political science , finance , computer science , management , mechanical engineering , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , engineering , programming language
Work on good governance implies a one‐best‐way model of effective government. This has isomorphic influences on development, whereby governments are influenced to adopt a one‐size‐fits‐all approach to get things done. This article challenges whether such an approach exists, proposing that models actually do not hold even for the so‐called effective governments. Governments look different, even if they are similarly called models of good government. This proposition is examined through a study of public financial management practices in a set of Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) and non‐OECD countries. The study shows that effective governments are not more likely to exhibit better practice characteristics implied in one‐best‐way models. Good public financial management means different things in different countries. The article concludes by suggesting that good governance models give way to menus and the development community invest more time in examining why different countries select different menu items.