vigilance is a necessary aid to governance
Answers
Vigilance (ˈvɪdʒ ə ləns)
n. the state or quality of being vigilant; watchfulness.
(thefreedictionary.com)
So, to be vigilant means to be watchful and observant. How does it translate to the way governments can utilize this value?
The first thing which comes to my mind is monitoring citizens. There's a word in English - invigilation which is sometimes used in discussions on very similar topics to the one we're talking about at the moment. What is more, it comes from vigilance itself! It means to watch somebody very carefully, so they wouldn't be able to cheat. Therefore, What if we applied this definition to the way countries are being governed?
From my point of view, it would mean watching every step of all citizens in order to determine who is likely to comming a fellany, even though they didn't really do that. It means, that algorythms and machines would probably calculate the probabilities based on data gathered by the system. Even if we employed people to go through it, who would they be to decide who will and who won't commit a crime? How can we constrain somebody who hasn't done anything yet? I think it's a road leading to totalitarian regime at best, because it gives the government a way, to control all citizens in their country directly.
To sum up, I not only not see the so-called vigilance as an aim to governing a country, I see it as a threat to freedom, every single person living in any country is entitled to.
Thank you
Qba
Answer:
Good governance can be seen as a term which determines how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources.
On the other hand, vigilance is practice or state of keeping careful watch for possible dangers.
In managing public resources, public institutions might start practicing hedonism (attitude in which a person starts thinking about himself/herself only, ignoring the effects of decisions taken by them on the people around them) to conduct public affairs and utilize public resources for personal gains. Such activities pose threat of corruption, which hurts the principle of good governance.
To avoid this, vigilance is necessary. And to make vigilance accountable to people/ citizens of society, transparency is required.
In India, we have a statutory body named Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) headed by Central Vigilance Commissioner.
Its mandate is to oversee the vigilance administration and to advice and assist the executive in matters relating to corruption.
It investigates cases of corruption arising out of complaints or detection by vigilance wings in the various departments and recommends punishment wherever required.
With such institution, the complaints related to corruptions get addressed and it helps in maintaining environment of good governance in the society.
To put in a nutshell, Vigilance is necessary for good governance.
hope it helps.