Governance & Public Policies

• Origin of the term governance
• Definition of governance
• Definition of good governance
• Characteristics of good governance: participation, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, equity, effectiveness and efficiency, accountability, strategic vision
• Collapse/failure of governance: its indicators, diagnostic tools & effects

• Communitarianism
• Decentered Theory
• Libertarian Socialism
• Institutionalism
• Marxism
• Neoliberalism
• Rational Choice Theory
• Regulation Theory

Laid down by the World Bank / IMF / UNESCO / UNDP / ADB, their explanation and application level in Pakistan:

• Voice and accountability
• Political stability and absence of violence
• Government effectiveness
• Regulatory authorities & their quality
• Rule of law
• Control of corruption

• Institutional framework for policy coordination and planning (ECNEC, Economic Coordination Committees of the Cabinet, the Federal Cabinet, the Secretaries Committee, the Prime Minister's Secretariat, the Planning Commission, the Finance Division, the Cabinet Division, and all Federal Ministries for their respective subjects)
• Role of Planning Commission in policy and planning
• Strategic planning in federal
• Provincial government and local government
• Role of international donors in policy formulation (IMF Document "Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policies 2013/14–2015/16," that underpins almost all public policies)
• Public policy and implementation in key sectors (i.e., health, education)

• General introduction to accountability and its concepts (standards, symbolism, regional and country-wide comparisons, a review of contemporary studies)
• Types of accountability: political accountability, legal/judicial accountability, administrative accountability, professional accountability, private vs. public accountability
• National strategies against corruption and remedial measures

• Introduction to the concept of bureaucracy (history, neutrality, steel frame of the state, negative connotations associated with the term)
• Theories of bureaucracy (Max Weber, Marx, John Stuart Mill, Woodrow Wilson)
• Role of bureaucracy in Pakistan (British legacy, civil-military relations, dilution of neutrality, political allegiance, power, corrupting the incumbent, institutional degradation, constitutional guarantees, indexing of salaries with the CPI or lack thereof)
• Public administration and code of ethics (effectiveness of the Estacode and the Code of Ethics, comparison with other countries)

• The policy making process: how policies are made (six including diagnosis and six stages with cautions to be exercised at each stage)
• Policy implementation & role of bureaucracy (training, pervasive inertia and how to break it, lack of decision making, culture of postponement and delays, lack of resources, political interference, ability to say "No.")
• Policy analysis, the quest for solutions (lack of research in policy analysis, lack of coordination among departments, secrecy, openness)
• Policy evaluation: assessing the impact of public policy, program evaluation — success and failure of Govt.

• Legislature: National Assembly, Senate, Provincial Assemblies
• Judiciary: Supreme Court, High Courts, Lower Courts
• Functioning of the offices: President of Pakistan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Office of Governor, Office of Chief Minister, Federal Cabinet, Cabinet Committees, Federal Secretariat, Provincial Secretariat
• Local Government system: District Government, Zila Government, Tehsil Government, Union Administration, its efficacy, performance & causes of success or failure

• Constituents' participation in federal structure
• Principle of subsidiarity in public service delivery
• Decentralization model of Kerala

• Quranic guidance on good governance
• Concept of governance and its application in light of Quran, Sunnah and Fiqh