Αποδοτικότητα και διακυβέρνηση: μπορεί η μέτρηση απόδοσης και η κατάρτιση προϋπολογισμών να βοηθήσει τη διαδικασία της διακυβέρνησης;

Abstract

How can the organization of society be improved? As would be argued in this paper understanding ‘governance’ and moving from ‘governing’ to ‘governance’ is one way of doing it. Governing has to do with control, while governance has to do with steering. Governing is the sole prerogative of governments because it involves the possible use of coercion while governance involves cooperation and collaboration among multiple governmental and non-governmental actors with diverse economic and non-economic interests. The thesis of this paper is that if the notion of governance evolved as an attempt of societies to overcome institutional and structural limitations of governments to deal with many problems, maximizing its potential benefits and minimizing its dysfunctions may depend on free flow of quality data and information. The introduction and public dissemination of regular performance reports about government operations is important for facilitating free flow of information and quality data. If for no other reason, free flow of data and information about government is important because it sets an example for other participants (and would be participants) in the governance process. As other participants in the governance process make quality data and information about themselves available, the governance process may become more efficient, making its societal benefits more readily available.
The paper starts by reviewing the way donor institutions like the UN, World Bank or the IMF view the notion of governance, followed by a similar look at the perspectives offered by some scholars. The paper goes on to examine how performance measurement, as a tool for accountability can facilitate the free flow of information and thus, cooperation. The paper concludes that performance reporting and the recent introduction of performance budgets (associating the allocation of resources not only with ends but with the cost of attaining them) can foster the governance process.