1. Building Good Governance and Resilience in Small States
Paul Sutton

2. Proposition ‘ Nurtured resilience’ result of policy
at heart pf policy is ‘good governance’

3. Paper in Five parts Paper in Five parts concept of good governance
overview of good governance in small states
two areas to improve governance
building more effective government
securing better regulation
-resilence and good governance
-concluding comments

4. Concept of Good Governance
-good governance as a contested concept
-good governance as a process and activity
-good governance as a complex activity (ODI Framework)
6 functional areas on one axis
(civil society, political society, government, bureaucracy, economic society, judicial society)
6 basic principles on other
(participation, decency, fairness, accountability, transparency and efficiency)
36 cell framework
-existing realities of each state/region as starting point

5. Overview of Good Governance in Small States
World Bank Indicators
Voice and Accountability
Political instability and Violence
Government Effectiveness
Regulatory Burden
Rule of Law
Control of Corruption

6. Record on Governance
Data listed for 44/48 states (2004) population 1.5 million or less
Dividing line those above and below world average
Good Record of Governance
27 above average (Europe, Asia, Caribbean)
14 below average (Africa)
3 middling (2 in Pacific)
Dividing by Quartiles
smaller the state the better the record
Per capita income
high per capita income not necessarily related to good governance
overall suggests region matters and size matters

7. On Individual Indicators
Voice and Accountability
34 plus and 14 negative
pays to be smaller
Political Instability and Violence
38 plus and 10 negative
Governmental Effectiveness
26 plus and 22 negative
evenly spread
Regulatory Burden
25 plus and 17 negative
smaller better
Rule of Law
31 plus and 17 negative
very small is better
Control of Corruption
28 plus and 16 negative
very small size no difference
Areas where small states are weakest
Government Effectiveness and Regulatory Burden
,000 and below appears better

8. Toward more Effective Governament
Improving the Public Sector
4 features shaping public sector
(exaggerated personalism, limited resources, inadequate service delivery, high donor dependence)
not recognised in much development literature
Scale not addressed in public sector reform

9. Encouraging the Private Sector
Competition policy
Policies difficult to put in place
High cost of doing business
Firm scale factors (nano-firms)
Regulatory policy
Meeting high external demands (OFCs)
Technical complexities of home regimes
Regional – but how to measure?

10. Resilience and Good Governance
Where to begin given complexity and lack of research
Does size really matter?
Democracy and size related
But regime choice?
Little change since independence and not toward a specific type of regime
Most parliamentary so should parliamentary regimes be encouraged?

11. Concluding Comments
Lots of assumptions and lots of generalisations but few robust conclusions
In governance sphere still need to demonstrate small states are different (degree or kind)
Need an analytic policy directed work programme – role for Commonwealth Secretariat