The First Global Dialogue on Ethical and Effective Governance: "Governing Good and Governing Well"

Starting point therefore is good governance in terms of ethics and integrity, but the dialogue attempts to broaden the discussion towards other criteria for good governance. This will include the discussion about the relationship between ‘integrity and ethics’ and the initiatives to make government more efficient and businesslike, including the increased scholarly attention to performance (management) in recent years.

The dialogue will pay attention to the fierce debate about the consequences of such initiatives, first and foremost in terms of integrity and ethics, but also to the recent attempts to align integrity and performance in a complementary fashion. Additionally, it is important to relate effectiveness and integrity to a third element of good governance: the (democratic) involvement of citizens and the legitimacy of governance. Is it possible to balance these criteria, ethics, efficiency and democracy? Is there something as ‘good government’ or ‘good governance’ in a broader sense than often interpreted?