Democratic Governance

Initiatives to change or sidestep presidential term limits are often presented as a response to popular demand, yet tend to be deeply polarizing and may even lead to violence. Opinion on the legality of changing term limits tends to be sharply divided not only in the country concerned but also among the international community. In an effort to fine-tune policy debate, this paper looks at the normative framework relating to term limits and their removal. It recommends that, in the absence of clear international norms, the issue be approached as a matter of maintaining confidence in a country’s electoral process and political system. This means focusing on the process by which term limits might be amended or interpreted.

This paper focuses on the notion of service delivery by the public service in a democratic developmental state. The public service in a democratic developmental state essentially focuses not only on the delivery of services, but it is also crucial for economic and social development. It contributes to development by providing the essential services and basic infrastructure necessary to help spur economic development and improve the lives of communities, especially poor communities. This it does primarily by regulating, administering, executing, mediating, investing and delivering the construction, operations, maintenance and servicing of service delivery infrastructure, and ensuring that the state and the public service are operationally and functionally oriented in a way that serves “to reproduce ethical citizens and communities”.1 
In a developmental state, the public service not only focuses on these outputs [the hard issues] but has to be keenly aware of outcomes [the soft issues], and in doing so has to deliver services in ways that are efficient, effective, and maintains the dignity of citizens [in light of the Batho Pele or people first, principles] and gives effect to their rights. In doing so, it can elicit compliance from citizens. In that sense, the public service (in terms of its delivery mandate) exists at the intersection of contemporary society and its challenges and the legacy of the past; it thus has to orient its mandate and strategic thrust to account simultaneously for both the challenges of the present and those imposed by an apartheid past that denied black people the scale and quality of services afforded to their white counterparts. In addition, its service delivery mandate places it at the junction of the policymaking, implementation, governance, delivery and democracy continuum. As such, the skills and values required in the public service of a democratic developmental state are defined by its development priorities and challenges as well as the specific institutional conditions that exist or may need to be created. This, however, presupposes a number of things, particularly about the democratic developmental state and what it is.

This edited volume is based on the Inaugural Nelson Mandela Distinguished Lecture event that was co-organized by Chulalongkorn University and the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Thailand at the Chulalongkorn University campus, Bangkok on 18 July 2014.

The aim of this paper was to analyze the history of colonial rule and its impact on postcolonial
bureaucracy and governance in Bangladesh. The paper is qualitative in nature and based on secondary
sources of data and information. The major findings of this paper are: the structure of bureaucracy is
inherited from the colonial rule. This legacy of colonial rule has impeded the postcolonial reform
efforts. As an adverse effect of colonial rule politicization of administration and civil-military elitism has coexisted in bureaucracy that relaxes the accountability of administration. As a result, dominating bureaucratic role exhibits with rampant corruption in Bangladeshi governance.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

The media has always played a role in the sustenance of the type of government being operated in any nation. This is why it is synonymously referred to as “the fourth estate of the realm”. It’s expected to be not only to be the voice of the citizens but a platform where both the government and the governed interact and ensure the continuous existence and growth of such a nation. Development in technology and subsequently the creation of new media forms has affected the way the media is used by the government and the governed. The advent of the social media has made the interaction of the government and the governed much more direct and faster. The limitation to access of social media forms due to the financial status of citizens has not stopped those in government who are connected to these social media forms from being criticized and abused by their followers and political enemies without any means of bringing such individuals to book as there is no structure to gate keep the content on different social media. This article looks at how the social media can be used to sustain and promote democratic governance in Nigeria. It is hinged on the democratic participant theory which postulates that both the government and the governed can use the media for the betterment of the nation and not just to pass wrong information or promote propaganda.

This report for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance examines successful strategies used by previously marginalised groups to overcome their exclusion from customary governance decision-making processes. It presents the strategies employed by the Osu, a group of social-cultural outcasts in south-east Nigeria to partake in customary governance. These include advocacy, legislative proscription of discrimination, moral and financial pressure from churches and town unions, and ingenious use of Western education to enforce attitudinal changes towards Osu people.

The task to reshape governments in the countries confronted with the Arab Spring prompts the question whether there are necessary conditions to realize a stable society that simultaneously seeks to eliminate the elements that have led to the uprisings. Acknowledging some constitutional rights seems indispensable in such a process. I argue that such a state of affairs is indeed the case, at least now that the ‘old’ justifications to differentiate between people do not suffice anymore. That is not to say that the countries involved will have identical laws in each respect, but merely that a common basis has to be realized, manifested in political and legal equality, so this given does not derogate from the fact that each country’s specific legislation needs to be shaped in the light of its own history. Such a basis has no ‘moral’ character, but is simply a necessary condition to prevent sedition.

Community Land Trusts can be defined as non-profit, democratic and locally-based organizations. They develop and manage genuinely affordable homes and urban facilities perpetually. Their mission is to withdraw, and permanently retain, lands from a speculative market, thus controlling real estate prices and preserving affordability over time for the benefit of local residents (Davis, 2010).

The initial CLT model was conceived in the US in the ’60s, throughout the Civil Rights Movements. Down the road, the definition of resilient guiding principles broadened the model and made it more inclusive so as to allow it to be transferred to and adapted in different urban situations. It flourished in Europe, notably in British, Belgian and French cities.

When transferred to different contexts, however, the initial CLT model’s substance and unity seems to be challenged. From this observation emerged the need to analyze CLTs in their diversity— with regard to international and national dynamics— and within the local contexts in which they operate.

We believe this work will bring a clearer understanding of distinct models, and of their genesis and outcomes. Collecting and gathering knowledge is thought to be crucial for the development of common grounds, and ultimately, the development of sustainable transnational and international movements.

It supports the thesis that, as the CLTs circulate worldwide, they need to be rethought in their variety. It argues that context affects the CLT model through a triple constraint system; expressed at the national, metropolitan and individual scale. This dissertation, thus, tries to disentangle how these constraint systems influenced the definition and implementation of CLTs in dense urban contexts.

Through a comparative study, this dissertation focuses on three case studies (Downtown Los Angeles, Lewisham Borough in London and the City of Montreuil in the Parisian area), and on six CLTs or OFSs (Organismes de Foncier Solidaire) – for the French version - evolving in these areas.
For each case, it tests the impact of a triple constraint system (national, metropolitan, individual) on CLTs’ missions (what, what for, for whom) and structuring (governance, scope, operation).

Political accounts for the contemporary rise of populism in Western democracies generally agree that elite unresponsiveness and a wider crisis of political representation are to blame for the current political predicament. Mainstream political elites are caught between increasingly irreconcilable responsibilities bound by external constraints and institutions and growing popular demands for responsiveness. These accounts, however, fail to explain what underlying processes and structures are constraining elite responsiveness. In this paper, I give a political economy explanation, which links elite unresponsiveness with the weakening problem-solving capacity of Western democracies to deliver to their citizens in the face of increasing global economic integration, the power of financial markets and neoliberal hegemony. Moreover, I argue that the success of populist actors lies precisely in attempting to overcome these structural constraints by employing state power to address the challenges posed by global economic processes and the imbalances they create to democracy and national sovereignty.

This paper sets out an ambitious critique of contemporary political scientists, political historians and others concerned with the history of democracy. It argues that overwhelmingly the history of democracy relies on an overtly Eurocentric narrative that emphasizes the keystone moments of Western civilization. According to this narrative, democracy has a clear trajectory that can be traced from ancient experiments with participatory government in Greece and to a lesser extent in Rome, through the development of the British parliament, the American Declaration of Independence and the French Revolution, and then finally onto the triumphant march of the liberal model of democracy across the globe over the last 200 years, particularly under Western tutelage. Histories of democracy that focus exclusively on these events not only privilege Europe and its successful colonies, but also miss the broader human story of the struggle for and achievement of democracy.

This presents us with a distinct challenge. For those whose heritage does not include a direct link to Greek assemblies, the American Congress or the French Revolution, the 'standard history of democracy' provides a distant and exclusive narrative, which limits one's ability to embrace democracy. This paper concludes by noting that, as democracy spreads out across the world today, political scientists not only need to break down the intellectual orthodoxy that democracy has exclusively Western roots, but also to embrace a more global view of democracy as a political practise that has been present at various times and in sometimes unfamiliar ways in the complex histories and rich cultural traditions of most of the people of the earth.

Emerging across many disciplines are questions about algorithmic ethics – about the values embedded in artificial intelligence and big data analytics that increasingly replace human decisionmaking. Many are concerned that an algorithmic society is too opaque to be accountable for its behavior. An individual can be denied parole or denied credit, fired or not hired for reasons she will never know and cannot be articulated. In the public sector, the opacity of algorithmic decisionmaking is particularly problematic both because governmental decisions may be especially weighty, and because democratically-elected governments bear special duties of accountability. Investigative journalists have recently exposed the dangerous impenetrability of algorithmic processes used in the criminal justice field – dangerous because the predictions they make can be both erroneous and unfair, with none the wiser.

We set out to test the limits of transparency around governmental deployment of big data analytics, focusing our investigation on local and state government use of predictive algorithms. It is here, in local government, that algorithmically-determined decisions can be most directly impactful. And it is here that stretched agencies are most likely to hand over the analytics to private vendors, which may make design and policy choices out of the sight of the client agencies, the public, or both. To see just how impenetrable the resulting " black box " algorithms are, we filed 42 open records requests in 23 states seeking essential information about six predictive algorithm programs. We selected the most widely-used and well-reviewed programs, including those developed by for-profit companies, nonprofits, and academic/private sector partnerships.  The goal was to see if, using the open records process, we could discover what policy judgments these algorithms embody, and could evaluate their utility and fairness. 

To do this work, we identified what meaningful “algorithmic transparency” entails.  We found that in almost every case, it wasn’t provided.  Over-broad assertions of trade secrecy were a problem.  But contrary to conventional wisdom, they were not the biggest obstacle. It will not usually be necessary to release the code used to execute predictive models in order to dramatically increase transparency.  We conclude that publicly-deployed algorithms will be sufficiently transparent only if (1) governments generate appropriate records about their objectives for algorithmic processes and subsequent implementation and validation; (2) government contractors reveal to the public agency sufficient information about how they developed the algorithm; and (3) public agencies and courts treat trade secrecy claims as the limited exception to public disclosure that the law requires. Although it would require a multi-stakeholder process to develop best practices for record generation and disclosure, we present what we believe are eight principal types of information that such records should ideally contain.

In a state where there exist a number of ethnic groups which are mostly antagonistic, often parallel and competing in their aspirations and supported by each of their armed groups rebelling against the India state demanding various levels of autonomy, settling such demands is not only cumbersome but also time consuming. In the process the law and order situation has deteriorated and the state continually faces the challenges of governance. Among such states Manipur is one of the worst affected and can now be labeled as a “weak” state having almost all the characteristics of a “failed” state. Taking into account the centrifugal forces of various autonomy demands by ethnic groups and their armed outfits this paper assesses the challenges of democratic governance in Manipur using some of the indicators of International IDEA’s Democracy Assessment Framework. The paper also makes key recommendations for better governance in a democratic framework.

Describes political developments in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt from  independence to 2007. written in 2007, the book predicted democratic change towards democracy.
The book sets a new concept of evaluation of states' development called "Zero Stage of States' Development"

The conditions of the Italian Public Administration are becoming everyday more critical. The current debate on the reform of the State is often based on solutions that have already been implemented in other countries, not considering that these countries, even if more prepared, are facing similar problems. The main intention is to propose a different global point of view, based on policy rather than politics. If we analyse deeply the crisis that concerns the Administrative State, it is possible to spot the reasons in the constitution of society and in its continuous internal changes. We will try to figure out an useful and flexible interpretation tool: a matrix for policies. We will discuss several potential applications related to the current debate about alternative forms of governance and, finally, we will point our attention to Experimentalist and Democratic Governance.

How do we understand the factors that led to the definitive shift toward democratic governance in Indonesia? This chapter examines how NGOs and various transnational actors have influenced the structuring of development politics vis-a-vis the state and assesses the rise of civil society in contemporary Indonesia. The chapter emphasizes the importance of the transnational dimension for political change by examining how NGOs, transnational networks, and international donor agencies have strengthened civil society and reshaped the discourse about sustainable development and democracy in Indonesia.

Brazil’s recent political, social and moral crisis has shaken the country’s democracy and affected its citizens’ belief and trust in the decision-making processes that impact their lives and cities. At the same time, a recent phenomenon happening in many cities around Brazil, and particularly in Brasilia, has given rise to new forms of citizenship. It has been through the reclaiming of public spaces, for social, cultural, economic or environmental purposes that social movements, community organizations and cultural producers have been creating new spaces and new means for action, experimenting with different collective forms of democratic governance and communal decision-making.
By appropriating, transforming and/or reclaiming public spaces for mutual benefit, different actors are engaging in the social practice of commoning, reclaiming their right to the city and redefining citizenship. In this context, this project proposes to leverage the existing initiatives by visualizing, translating, interpreting and representing them in what Teddy Cruz calls ‘tactics of translation’. Under these circumstances, this design proposal is a strategy for the democratic governance of public space. Through different scales, it is meant to reveal and connect the existing practices in order to coordinate and synergize their efforts; it translates and shares the found protocols to amplify and replicate these initiatives; it leverages the existing spaces of collective action as legitimate grounds for decision-making; and, finally, it provides means for a more inclusive and plural governance of public space. Reimagining public space and its governance is inseparable from reinventing the scope of democratic participation and control over our living context. These strategies are meant to gather voices and envision possible futures for Brasilia, designed by and for its inhabitants. It also encourages people to use public space and start caring for, reflecting on and demanding urban and social changes.

The countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean are all self-governing, determining their own futures. But some 40 years after gaining independence from Britain, the question remains whether these countries are truly democratic and whether the parliamentary and electoral systems adopted, are well suited to the Caribbean experience. Meighoo and Jamadar answer these questions in the negative. A true democracy, they argue, is one where the Legislature has the authority and the strength to make the Executive effectively accountable and responsible to it and where the electoral system results in the true practical separation of the Legislature and the Executive.

Using Trinidad and Tobago as the model, Democracy and Constitution Reform in Trinidad and Tobago offers an overview of the constitutional reform process in the Commonwealth Caribbean. In these young, postcolonial democracies, where party politics have had a negative impact on the process of democratic reform, the authors review the historical, political and cultural motivations that have spawned the most recent debates on constitutional reform; and more particularly on the proposals for parliamentary and electoral reform. The book concludes with a review of past proposals and recommendations, and puts forward the authors’ own suggestions for reform.

At a time when most of the Commonwealth Caribbean is undergoing a process of constitutional debate and change, this book makes a valuable contribution to the discussion and provides a basis for the informed citizen, student or pundit to judge the process of reform.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Kirk Meighoo is a member of the Democratic National Assembly and the author of Politics in a Half-Made Society: Trinidad and Tobago 1925–2002.

Peter Jamadar is a Judge of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago and the author of The Mechanics of Democracy.

In this paper I briefly discuss the preconditions of democratic e-governance, which in this context emphasizes the role of technology in government-citizen interaction designed along the principles of participatory democracy. I will first provide some clarification to the terminology of this research field and outline the connections between the concepts of e-Governance, e-Government and e-Democracy. The next section discusses structures and processes of democratic e-Governance. Lastly, issues of e-participation as a core of democratic e-Governance are outlined followed by a discussion of the development towards ubiquitous network democracy as a possible future direction of e-Democracy. The main message of this presentation is to highlight the need to conceptual clarity of this field as well as a need to focus on transformative power of ICTs in reinventing our conceptions and practices of democratic governance.

In this paper I argue that it is rather unfortunate that planning theorists have, with a few notable exceptions, tended to ignore the potential contributions that Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad ideas regarding the production of space can make to planning theory and urban democracy. In addition to the familiar spatial triad, I argue that Lefebvre’s concept of everyday differential space could provide a powerful focus for urban planners’ conceptual approaches to the creation and enhancement of inclusive democratic public space. In addition I work with the concepts of quasi-public space and publicness and a spectrum of publicness is proposed that together inform the approach to differential space. A case study approach is used based on international comparative research. A mixed methods methodology is deployed where archival data form the bulk of the original empirical sources, supplemented by interviews, visual data and non-intrusive observation. Three cities form the basis of the case studies: one in the UK and two in North America. A robust rationale for the choice of case studies is provided. This paper explores critically through original research, the production of urban public space focusing principally on the era of the 1960s to the 2010s. A range of implications and consequences for the production of differential space are outlined. Methodologically, the mixed research methods approach, based on a series of methodological clues provided by Lefebvre delivered a tough but flexible empirical framework allowing for qualitative analyses used iteratively throughout the research process. Through exploratory research the paper discloses city centre space to consist of  highly complex, contested spaces produced by various social relationships. Their complexity has compounded through time by the accretion of layers of subsequent spatial practice, and through the many official and unofficial representations of space that have rendered the areas more visible or less visible since the 1960s. Rather than simply complaining about the privatisation, loss or corruption of ‘public’ space, we should appreciate the potentialities inherent in the production of differential space through the contestations that can occur in the creation of a more fair and just society in asserting ‘the right to the city’. What might be called ‘strong’ differential space: the spaces of politicised appropriation and the assertion of rights to the city, insinuates itself to a constant dialectical struggle through elements of the spatial triad. Conclusions draw attention to the importance of spatial histories and differential space for democratic urban public space. The paper makes an original contribution empirically through case study revelations in the three cities. Lost histories are recovered and unexpected spatial civil society and public spirited coalitions revealed. Theoretically, the paper goes ‘beyond Lefebvre’ by situating differential space in the contemporary neo-liberal context. Recommendations for urban policy and practice are provided.

Key-Words - spatial triad, Lefebvre, differential space, public space, democracy

Durante los años setenta, la experiencia de autonomía territorial kuna en Panamá Oriental sirvió de punto de referencia para muchos de los movimientos que se gestaban a nivel continental. El presente artículo presenta una visión histórica de las relaciones entre los diferentes pueblos originarios y el Estado panameño haciendo énfasis en la transición que ha ocurrido entre el modelo de ciudadanía corporatista prevaleciente durante la dictadura militar (1968-1989) y la implementación de un régimen neoliberal multicultural después de la intervención militar estadounidense. A pesar de que la mayoría de las comunidades
indígenas han logrado el reconocimiento de jure de sus derechos territoriales, estos avances legales han coincidido con un aumento en las presiones de desarrollo como se muestra con claridad en los estudios de caso de las hidroeléctricas de
Tabasara, Bonyic y Chan 75 que han afectado a los pueblos naso y ngobe en Panamá Occidental. Ante la ruptura de la alianza histórica entres los pueblos indígenas y el Estado benefactor, las comunidades han respondido con movilizaciones de base que intentan recuperar el sentido de autonomía de facto que prevaleció en los territorios indígenas hasta los años sesenta. En esta trayectoria circular, la inusitada persistencia de nociones de lealtad corporatista, así como el
evidente fracaso de los mecanismos correctivos establecidos por el Estado neoliberal multicultural, constituyen principales desafíos para el éxito de los movimientos indígenas en medio de un entorno cada vez más excluyente y represivo,
el Panamá globalizado del siglo XXI.

"These notes are based on the results of a research on innovation and citizen participation in the city of Medellín (Colombia). As a result is argued that participatory budgeting is not only a tool for planning and allocation of public resources at the sub-municipal (communal) level but it is also a vigorous process that contributes to the construction of social and democratic practices, especially in those parts of city that have had long periods of political violence and crime and which today are living peace processes and reinsertion of paramilitary armed groups. It shows that much of the transformative potential of participatory budgeting is linked to the fact that local government has followed and supported this process face to face with the organized citizens, especially in times of crisis in which violent conflict threatens to rise again. This has facilitated the emergence and consolidation of public spaces and community development agendas before inhibited by fear and control of armed groups.
==========
Las presentes notas son a propósito de los resultados de una investigación empírica sobre innovaciones municipales y participación ciudadana en Medellín (Colombia). Se plantea que el Presupuesto Participativo en esta ciudad, además de haber sido un instrumento de planificación y asignación de recursos públicos en el ámbito comunal, se ha mostrado además como un proceso vigoroso que coadyuva en la construcción de tejido social y prácticas democráticas, especialmente en aquellas partes de la ciudad que han vivido largos e intensos periodos de violencia política y delincuencial y en los que hoy se presentan varios procesos de paz y reinserción de paramilitares y delincuenciales. Se indica que gran parte de este potencial transformativo del Presupuesto Participativo está vinculado a que el gobierno local ha acompañado y respaldado este proceso de cara a las y los ciudadanos en aquellos momentos de crisis en los que el conflicto violento amenaza con resurgir. Ello ha facilitado la emergencia y consolidación de espacios públicos comunales, así como el desarrollo de agendas locales y comunitarias, antes inhibidas por el temor y el control de los grupos armados.""

The United Nations (UN) Charter remains the primary instrument for the international regulation of the use of force. However, there are emerging trends in practice, especially by regional organizations, which may be leading to the establishment of a new customary international law rule on pro-democratic intervention. Thus, it is necessary to examine the legality and compatibility of these practices with the UN Charter and other international and regional instruments. It is also important to investigate opinio juris in order to establish whether the international community interprets these practices as a breach of existing international law or indeed as creating new law.

This article analyses the permissibility of pro-democratic intervention in light of article 2(4) of the UN Charter, the principle of non-intervention, and other rules guiding the use of force in international law, with a focus on the recent ECOWAS intervention in the Gambia and its consistency with the general body of international law. The article concludes that, albeit illegal, the ECOWAS intervention is legitimate and morally excusable following Reisman's morally-based approach to humanitarian intervention.

This is an extract from the book "The O’Donnells of Tyrconnell – A Hidden Legacy", by Francis M. O ’Donnell, published by Academica Press LLC, Washington DC, 2019 (750p). The book contains substantial further notes, sources and and extensive bibliography. In this extract, that author describes how the experience of Count Jean Louis Barthélemy O'Donnell, of a Napoleonic military administrative background led to his being charged with coordination of the Cholera epidemic of 1832 in Paris, an experience which led to his work on the "Code Vicinal" transforming it into a blueprint for socially-balanced economic development during the Industrial Revolution in 19th C France.

While all legislations enacted by the National Assembly are binding and
important, there are many laws that are significant for their span or because they point to a major and official decisive moment for the country. Since the return to democratic governance in 1999, the National Assembly has passed several critical legislations aimed at transforming state institutions that have become moribund under successive military regimes and influencing particular attitudes and social behaviours on a large scale. This paper critically assesses such "landmark legislations" in Nigeria that were passed from 1999 to 2016 in terms of their potentials for positive impacts on development and democratic re-engineering. These legislations cover such areas as finance and the economy, politics, security, corruption, democracy and governance, and the social sector among others. Also, some of the challenges faced in their implementation are discussed.

A restorative justice strategy is about the idea that because injustice hurts, justice should heal. It should repair harm and meet funda-mental needs, such as the need for safety. A responsive strategy is about the idea that justice should be responsive to how actors are behaving in a particular legal environment. Restorative and responsive justice means that a business regulator may be less punitive with a firm that breaks the law if the firm is subject to a self-regulatory  regime  that  disciplines  those  responsible  and  repairs harm. This puts restorative and responsive justice in tension with other justice values. For example, will a lawbreaker, who has no access to a self-regulatory scheme, who is not in a position to repair harm to victims, be more vulnerable to the full force of the law? One radical strategy is to give up on the impossibility of reconciling  equal  justice  for  lawbreakers and equal  justice  for  victims. Equal concern for the justice claims of all stakeholders to be free from domination by injustice is one alternative.