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CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF EXISTING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SCHOLARSHIP ON GOOD GOVERNANCE IN THE CONTEXT OF NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT

 Introduction

Based on the preliminary reading of the literature in Chapter 1 of the thesis it is hypothesised that scholarship endeavours to examine good governance in the context of NEPAD and determine its meaning for Public Administration are limited. This is validated in this chapter through a comprehensive review of Public Administration scholarship to determine how it engages good governance in the context of NEPAD. Such review is important to contextualise the research question of the study. It entails critical analysis of the writings of Public Administration scholars, with specific focus on their theorisation and conceptualisation of good governance to determine whether their intellectual efforts are located, and aim to untangle the concept, within the context of NEPAD. The objective of this chapter is to authenticate the observation made in Chapter 1 of the thesis that scholarship endeavours to determine the meaning of good governance in the context of NEPAD for Public Administration are limited.
At the outset contextual aspects for consideration in the review of the existing Public Administration scholarship on good governance in NEPAD are explained. This is followed by the attempt to construct the epistemological framework used in this chapter to systematise and contextualise the review process. Using the epistemological framework as constructed, books, chapters in books, papers presented at scholarly gatherings and articles published in scholarly journals are reviewed as the body of Public Administration scholarship to determine how good governance is engaged in the field; and whether such engagements are contextual to NEPAD. The results of the review are reflected upon and, towards the end, conclusions are made, which validate the contention based on the preliminary reading of literature in Chapter 1 of the thesis that scholarship endeavours to determine the meaning good governance in the context of NEPAD for Public Administration are limited.

Contextual aspects of the review for consideration

For the purpose of this chapter, scholarship comprises books, chapters in books, articles in scientific journals, and academic or scholarly conferences, symposia, workshop outputs and occasional papers in the field of Public Administration that deal with NEPAD. The meaning of scholarship is provided in Chapter 1 of the thesis; wherein it is also pointed out that NEPAD, as the context for engaging with the concept good governance, is a relatively new development initiative on the African continent. Much of scholarly contributions on this contemporary paradigm for Africa’s development emerged mainly from the end of 2001. On this basis 2001 is used in this chapter as  a terminus a quo in the review of Publi Administration scholarship.
To cover as many perspectives on good governance as possible for the purpose of scholarship review in this chapter, 2010 is chosen as a terminus ad quem. The scope of scholarship review in this chapter is limited to Public Administration scholarly outputs that emerged during the period 2001-2010. A reference to the literature that falls outside the periods mentioned above in the discourse is made for explanatory and reflective rather than review purposes. These contextual aspects are clearly explained in Chapter 1 of the thesis. Their restatement here is for emphatic and, more importantly, contextual reasons.
A search for scholarship outputs through the various methodological means as explained in Chapter 1 of the thesis yielded a substantial amount of literature in the field of Public Administration with some books, journals articles and conferences, symposia and workshop paper titles bearing either the concept governance or good governance. These concepts are inextricably intertwined; hence often used interchangeably in various disciplinary discourses. A reference to governance in the conceptual analysis of good governance is, for reasons of epistemic logic and scholarship rigour, an inevitable necessity. However, these concepts are not the same. A conceptual analysis of governance and good governance in terms of their distinction and relatedness is provided in Chapter 4 of the thesis. For the purpose of this chapter it suffices to only point out that governance and good governance were used as key concepts in the search for relevant literature necessary for Public Administration scholarship review.

Epistemological framework for the review of Public

Administration scholarship on good governance

For a scientific object to be considered as good in human sciences it must be subjected to rigorous reason with reference to purpose (Kant 2000: 50-52). However, such reason is often inevitably influenced by the ideological idiosyncrasies of its epistemological antecedents or foundations. For, as Babbie and Mouton (2006: 543) put it, ideology and science are linked. In this Nkrumah (1970: 56) explains that in the science of knowledge ideology, philosophy and theory constitute a continuum in the logic of knowledge. A crude distinction often made among them undermines their epistemological nexus. This aspect is attended to extensively in Chapter 3 of the thesis where the philosophical and theoretical antecedents of NEPAD are determined.
Going back to the notion of a reason Kant (2000: 51) argues that a reason must have a concept of what sort of a thing the object ought to be. The object of scientific inquiry in this study is governance with the prefix good, which complicates rather its relative simplicity in terms of its meaning. For, the question of what constitutes good governance depends on the ideological propensity of the discourse. Scholarship discourses on good governance in the existing body of knowledge in the field of Public Administration abound. Their considerations of good governance are, however, diverse and interspersed by different ideological antecedents of their conceptions. To be able to handle the intellectual variations in the conception of the concept with relative ease, it is important that the epistemological framework is constructed and used to review the existing body of Public Administration scholarship in a systematic manner to determine how, and whether, it engages good governance in the context of NEPAD.
Based on the extensive study of Public Administration scholarship, the results of which are presented and reflected upon towards the end of this chapter, the intellectual trend or pattern in theorising and conceptualising good governance as conceptus ratiocinatus could be disaggregated into three epistemological strands embedded in different ideological antecedents of its conception juxtaposed as procedural democratic strand, substantive democratic strand and eclectic strand. These epistemological strands are, for the purpose of this discourse, used as the framework for the review of the body of Public Administration scholarship to realise the objective of this chapter as pointed out in its introductory part.
The concept epistemological strand is used in this chapter to refer to certain elements in the discourse on good governance in the existing body of Public Administration scholarship that suggest a particular paradigmatic disposition in the “changing forms of knowledge that arise from new conceptualisations of the world” (Blackburn 2005: 118-119). In different epistemological strands certain dimensions of the discourse are embodied, in which it is important to determine in a uniquely and sufficient way each element of a system of knowledge in the engagement with good governance. As part of the epistemological construct for the review of the existing body of Public Administration scholarship, the concept dimension is used in this chapter to refer to those aspects that determine the parameters of the discourse or the extent to which the discourse in the different epistemological strands engage good governance in the determination of its meaning.

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Procedural democratic strand

The procedural democratic strand is embedded in the theoretical and philosophical antecedents of neo-liberalism, which are considered comprehensively in Chapter 4 of the thesis that deals with the evolution of good governance as a concept in the development discourse. The notion of neo-liberalism is about the “belief in the moral necessity of market forces in the economy and entrepreneurs as a good and necessary social group” (Adesina 2001: 06). Thorsen and Lie (no date) observe that during the past twenty years the concept of neo-liberalism dominated the political and academic discourses with some perspectives even suggesting that it is a dominant ideology shaping the world today. Saad-Filho (2005: 01) declared that “we live in the age of neo-liberalism”. As a political philosophy neo-liberalism is embedded in neo-classical economics. Its definitions are many and varied, with most of them describing it pejoratively as global capitalism aimed at destroying the welfare state. It is about “the falling away of the welfare functions of public enterprises and utilities” (Adesina 2001: 07).
In neo-liberalism the private sector plays a central role in that the larger part of the control of the economy is located within its purview whereas the state is assigned the responsibility of maintaining political stability. The rationale behind this arrangement is based on the misconception that curtailing the role of the state in the economy and restricting it to the political dimension of governance would necessarily give rise to efficient government. This is in contrast with the notion of developmentalism, which, as explained below, emphasises state intervention in the economy to provide direction in the pursuit of the ideal of a developmental state. Each of these ideological paradigms appropriate meanings that befit their theoretical and philosophical antecedents to good governance.
In the context of procedural democratic strand the parameter or the dimension of the discourse in determining the meaning of good governance is confined to the philosophy of neo-liberalism. Its conception is limited to the formal aspects of democratisation, which are largely concerned with the political dimension of the concept. Olowu (2003: 04) calls this approach in studying the meaning of good governance a process perspective. The definitional focus is on the procedural aspects of liberal democracy and emphasises, as key variables in the conception of good governance, “the need for a rule-based, open, transparent, efficient, accountable precepts of formal democracy” and “representative forms of government with periodic elections based on universal suffrage and other related aspects of what is normally understood to be representative democracy, underpinned by constitutionally and legally entrenched protection of universal human rights and freedoms” (Mhone & Edigheji 2003: 03).

CHAPTER 1: CONTEXTUAL SETTING
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Research question
1.3 Good governance as the object of study
1.4 Raison d’être
1.5 Purpose and objectives.
1.6 Research methodology
1.7 Sequential arrangement of chapters in the thesis
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF EXISTING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SCHOLARSHIP ON GOOD GOVERNANCE IN THE CONTEXT OF NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Contextual aspects of the review for consideration
2.3 Epistemological framework for the review of Public Administration scholarship on good governance
2.4 Books and chapters in books
2.5 Papers presented at selected scholarly Public Administration gatherings
2.6 Selected scholarly Public Administration Journals
2.7 Presentation of, and reflection on, the results of Public Administration Scholarship review
2.8 Conclusion
CHAPTER 3: UNPACKING THE NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVEVELOPMENT
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Framework ofanalysis
3.3.3 Synthesis
3.4 Conclusion
CHAPTER 4: THE CONCEPT GOOD GOVERNANCE
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Governance and good governance
4.3 Conclusion
CHAPTER 5: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PERSPECTIVE OF THE STUDY
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Historical and epistemological antecedents of Public Administration
5.3 Question of the paradigmatic status and theoretical base of Public Administration
5.4 Conclusion
CHAPTER 6: INSIGHTS FROM THE LITERATURE BEYOND THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SCHOLARSHIP ON GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Books and chapters in books
6.3 Conferences, occasional, symposia and workshop papers
6.4 Articles in scientific journals
6.5 Official publications, magazines and newspapers articles
6.6 Are insights acquired through the review of scholarship and “other” literature beyond Public Administration scholarship instructive in conceptualising good governance in the context of NEPAD?.
6.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 7: TOWARDS EPISTEMOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR CONCEPTUALISING GOOD GOVERNANCE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT AND ITS MEANING FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Contextual aspects of the epistemological framework
7.3 Contingent co-existence of opposites
7.4 Meaning of good governance in the context of NEPAD
7.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 8: SUMMATION
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Contextual aspects of the study
8.3 Public Administration scholarship engagement with good governance in the context of NEPAD
8.4 Meaning of NEPAD within the context of the object of study
8.5 Good governance and the question of its meanings in the development discourse
8.6 Disciplinary perspective of the study – Public Administration
8.7 Can the Public Administration discipline derive any epistemological value from the literature beyond the field in considering good governance in the context of NEPAD?
8.8. Epistemological framework for conceptualising good governance in the context of NEPAD
8.9 Implication of the meaning of good governance in the context of NEPAD for Public Administration
8.10 Conclusion
Bibliography
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