On the Way to Modernization: The 'Good Enough' Governance Making in Romania

Abstract

‘To be or not to be good governance' has probably been a question of interest to scholars for many centuries now; the issue of how to measure it as to offer alternatives for governmental actions however became of interest only recently. In this respect, this paper explores the concept of 'good enough' governance in the context provided by Robert Dahl's theory on democratization. In doing so, it elaborates the idea according to which good enough governance may be interpreted as a minimal democratic system in need of a minimal democratic administrative practice. The validation of this theoretical tool is to be completed against the Romanian administrative reform as assessed by the national strategic documents and the European Commission Regular and Monitoring Reports of 1998-2006. The larger scope of the paper is to offer a comprehensive image of the 'good enough' governance inside the spectrum of the building of a consolidated democracy.

Keywords: good enough governance, policy making, European integration

JEL Classification: H00, H83