"Good governance is an indeterminate term used in international development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources." - (wikipedia.org)
The website of "The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)" insists good governance has 8 major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law.
In the context of India (Governments in India), in my opinion Good Governance should have following characteristics:-
1. A Vision - to ensure that governance is in accordance with a generally accepted long term vision for inclusive growth and sustainable development.
2. Sensible Distribution of Scarce Resources - Governance should ensure distribution of scarce resources to meet the objectives for realization of the vision.
3. Rationality - Rationality in governance should be practiced in accordance with progressive social values and with regards to prevalent cultural norms as far as possible.
4. Intent and Ability protect of rights of citizens - Governance should be able to ensure peace in the society and ensure constitutional rights to the citizens.
5. Provisions for Checks and Balances - Governance should ensure checks and balances on authoritative privileges. This may require well balanced distribution of power with different entities within the government.
6. Transparency and Accountability - Executive body with clearly defined accountability should execute with full transparency.
7. Mechanism for Feedback and Fair Assessment - A mechanism for getting feedback from all the stakeholders on governance to ensure fair assessment of governance.
8. Consensus Orientation - Consensus oriented approach on issues of public interest may include co-ordination among political and social leadership, religious bodies and cultural representatives to bring coherence among different voices.
References:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Governance
http://www.unescap.org/pdd/prs/ProjectActivities/Ongoing/gg/governance.asp
