L'insaisissable relation entre « bonne gouvernance » et développement

This working paper offers tools for rethinking the role of ?good governance? in development strategies. What is ?good governance?? Transparency of public action, control of corruption, free operation of markets, democracy and the rule of law. Along with macroeconomic stabilisation, ?good governance? has imposed itself as a universal imperative in development policies since the 1990s. Yet, with the help of a new database (Institutional Profiles, 2006), we show that if there might be a correlation between ?good governance? and the level of development (per capita gdp), there is no correlation between it and the speed of development (medium-to-long-term growth). By identifying the specific institutions that characterized rapidly-growing developing countries, we can precise the strategic governance capabilities developed by these countries: ?good governance? does not emerge as a priority for economic take-off. It becomes one later, along with the opening of the economic, social and political regulation systems when, having experienced sustained and lengthy growth, a country seeks to converge with developed countries. In other, non-converging developing countries, the priority could be to build capacities for strategic vision and co-ordination among elites. We therefore propose a wider definition of governance (?governance for development?) and new indicators to measure it. Classification JEL : C8, K0, O10, O17, O4, O57, P0, P1.