Bhutan Decentralization And Good Governance

This book explores the practices of governance in Bhutan and how they shape the implementation of the country’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) development strategy. The author examines whether Bhutan’s innovative GNH governance framework successfully navigates competing power dynamics and generates the intended human development outcomes of Gross National Happiness. The analysis is structured around a comparison of the implementation of four GNH development policies – tourism, media, farm roads and human/wildlife conflict – and their larger implications on power, governance and the human development paradigm in Bhutan and beyond.

Bhutan has made impressive gains in social, economic, and political development over the years. Its unique approach in this regard---encapsulated in the philosophy of Gross National Happiness---serves as an anchor for sustained efforts at holistic development. The drive for good governance in the country has been a consistent, and well-supported, development objective of the government; the commendable work of the Royal Audit Authority and the Anti-Corruption Commission is testimony to this commitment. This book, in the main, tells the story of the work of these two organizations.

Over the past three decades the developing world has seen increasing devolution of political and economic power to local governments. Decentralization is considered an important element of participatory democracy and, along with privatization and deregulation, represents a substantial reduction in the authority of national governments over economic policy. The contributors to Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries examine this institutional transformation from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives, offering detailed case studies of decentralization in eight countries: Bolivia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, and Uganda. Some of these countries witnessed an unprecedented "big bang" shift toward comprehensive political and economic decentralization: Bolivia in 1995 and Indonesia after the fall of Suharto in 1998. Brazil and India decentralized in an uneven and more gradual manner. In some other countries (such as Pakistan), devolution represented an instrument for consolidation of power of a nondemocratic national government. In China, local governments were granted much economic but little political power. South Africa made the transition from the undemocratic decentralization of apartheid to decentralization under a democratic constitution. The studies provide a comparative perspective on the political and economic context within which decentralization took place, and how this shaped its design and possible impact. Contributors Omar Azfar, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Pranab Bardhan, Shubham Chaudhuri, Ali Cheema, Jean-Paul Faguet, Bert Hofman, Kai Kaiser, Philip E. Keefer, Asim Ijaz Khwaja, Justin Yifu Lin, Mingxing Liu, Jeffrey Livingston, Patrick Meagher, Dilip Mookherjee, Ambar Narayan, Adnan Qadir, Ran Tao, Tara Vishwanath, Martin Wittenberg

This book provides essential insights into Bhutan’s developmental challenges. It analyzes and scrutinizes the sovereign state’s developmental approach, including the idea of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which has replaced Gross National Product (GNP) as a measurement of prosperity. The authors also explore and deconstruct ideational and cultural aspects of knowledge production and present a critical overall assessment of the political economy of education policy, health, ICT and migration in Bhutan. The book is divided into five parts all taking a critical approach towards inequality: Part one offers an assessment of Bhutan’s developmental trajectories; part two deals with GNH, equality and inclusion versus exclusion; part three is devoted to culture, legal issues and the politics of change; and part four to governance and integration; section five addresses health, food and disparities. This book will appeal to all scholars of South Asian affairs and development studies, as well as to diplomats and professionals involved in development aid.

"Bhutan represents a political system which coalesces the rhetorical acquiescence of democracy with illiberal authoritarian attributes under the former royalist shadow. The camouflage of this kind of authoritarian regime is not yet a democracy but is instead a new form of semi-authoritarian “Jigmecracy”; an old Jigme system with new labels."

This report on Bhutan’s Assessment of Development Results (ADR) focuses on the following three thematic areas: fostering democratic governance; achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and reducing poverty under a human development perspective; and ensuring environmental sustainability. Reflecting on the characteristics of Bhutan’s economic history, its current juncture and prospects, the ADR examined the past with a forward-looking perspective.