Comparative Study of "Good Governance" based on Nahj al-Balagheh's Letter 53 and ESCAP's Opinions

"Good governance", recently proposed by Western thinkers, is a model for evaluating progress. Western countries seek to introduce it to other countries and consider it the key to the improvement of developing societies. Good governance includes the three sectors of the government, civil society, and the private sector, along with their mutual relations. It also embraces eight characteristics of accountability, responsibility, transparency, sovereignty and equality, satisfaction and collective agreement, participation, compliance with laws and regulations, efficiency, and effectiveness. Using the descriptive-analytical method, this article examines the substantive and fundamental differences of "good governance" by comparing letter 53 of Nahj-ul-Balagha with ESCAP opinions. Therefore, in the first step, "good governance" and its indicators were examined, and then "good governance" and its indicators based on the decree of Imam Ali (A.S) were compared with "good governance" of international institutions. The result is that "good governance" from international or regional institutions' (ESCAP) point of view is human-centered. In contrast, "good and decent governance" based on the indicators of letter 53 of Nahj al-Balaghah is God-centered and has considered all aspects of human life. The fundamental difference between governance based on letter 53 of Nahj al-Balaghah and "good governance" (ESCAP) is in the bases of legislation because the Imam (A.S) considers law and legislation exclusively to God or those who are sent by God, while in ESCAP, the law, and the legislator are people.