حکومت های دموکراتیک و اصلاحات سیاست بخشی: ردیابی ارتباطات و بررسی هم افزایی

Effective democratic governance influences how societies and economies progress and prosper. For many people in developing and post-socialist countries, the action and impact of democratic governance happens through sectoral reforms. Efforts to improve democratic governance can have strong impacts on sectoral reforms, how these are implemented, who participates in them at various stages, and what outcomes are achieved. Conversely, sectoral policy reforms and program interventions can serve to promote and enhance democratic governance. This article discusses these linkages, and provides selected examples of the synergies among them. It raises the political dimension of democratic governance, and offers several suggestions regarding where, when, and how donor agencies can intervene, both to promote democratic governance and to advance sectoral policy reforms.

This article explores the linkages between democratic governance and sectoral reforms. It asks two basic questions: how does democratic governance affect sectoral development, and how do sectoral reforms influence democratization of governance? The analysis holds implications both for those whose interests lie primarily with democracy and governance, and those with a specific sectoral focus. For the former, it shows that while democratic governance can be treated conceptually as a discrete construct, in practice much of the “action” of democratic governance happens in a sectoral context. Thus, there can be significant pay-offs for the promotion of democratic governance by concentrating on the governance dimensions of sectoral reform programs. For the latter, the analysis reveals that the efficiency and effectiveness of sectoral reforms are enhanced by incorporating explicit attention to democratic governance. This potentiality emerges both in terms of the initial conditions that can constrain reform design; and of the availability of social capital, partnerships, and so on that can contribute to reform implementation. This examination of the mutually reinforcing linkages between democratic governance and sectoral policy reform provides selected sectoral illustrations of these linkages, with an emphasis on successful synergies. This positive focus is not intended to idealize these synergies, nor to downplay or ignore the difficulties that exist on both sides of the equation; indeed, embedded political, ethnic, and social factors can significantly constrain the impacts of donor-supported efforts either to strengthen democratic forms of governance or to promote sectoral reforms. Rather, the emphasis in the discussion below is to provide a sense of what positive benefits may be derived from considering the linkages. The concluding sections of the article discuss the prospects for capitalizing on these synergies, emphasizing the impacts of political factors, and offer suggestions on ways that international donors can exploit the complementarities between democratic governance and sectoral policy and programs.