The People-Centered Public Security and Good Security Governance: Lesson Learning for Policy Recommendations

Public policy-makers and public sector managers are often faced with high-stakes situations while they must ensure the well-being of their people, but they essentially base their decisions on national security from the perspective of regime’s stability, as well as on their own self-interested considerations. Policymaking to defend against traditional military threats has remained a top policy priority of most (if not) all governments which are giving priorities to huge budget allocation for military spending. While we know a lot about national security consequences of military threats, we know much less about the implications of the current and future non-military threats to human security. The twin purposes of this paper are, a) to identify and examine the factors that influence security policy-making aimed at combating traditional and emerging public security challenges and threats; and b) to examine the merits of different models of governance with an emphasis on security sector governance as an effective means of decision-making and implementing policies to address equitable redistribution of income and wealth, just social security policies, power sharing, and peaceful conflict resolution techniques. Thus, this study is designed to gain insight into the determining factors influencing public security in the changing world from the perspective of people-centric policy-making. Urgent issues of outmost importance for public security include public healthcare, mental health, emergency preparedness for natural disasters, environmental dimensions of human security, the consequences of militarization of law enforcement, cyber-crime prevention, public safety implications of technological advancement. Th emergence of new technologies might be detrimental to public security in two ways: First, the new communication and surveillance technologies might facilitate the actions of the governments that plan to restrict personal liberties and political freedoms of their citizens. Second, criminal and terrorist groups may exploit new technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence) to expand their activities which generate threats to public security.
The primary and secondary research questions are as follows: 1. How can the advancement of public security and human security be achieved within the theoretical framework of good security governance and the people-centered approach to sustainable development? 2. Why should the security-development-democracy nexus be considered in people-centered public security policymaking? 3. What lessons can be learned from different governance models to confront security challenges and threats in the unstable global security environment? In the research hypothesis, it is postulated that good security sector governance leads to greater success in the people-centered public security policymaking. In order to reduce the level of military and non-military threats to the security of its citizens, a forward-looking government will adopt good governance model of decision-making. With a qualitative and explanatory approach, the authors seek to answer these questions, test the hypothesis, and outline the findings by means of an in-depth analysis of the arguments and evidence presented by the scholars in the existing political science and governance studies, which could foster lesson-learning from past experience of the success and failure of security policymaking. The results suggest that the potential consequences of the poor quality of governance for people-centered public security are highly dependent on the economic and political attributes of development. On the one hand, socioeconomic vulnerability contributes to mistrust in government leaders, public institutions and their civil servants. On the other hand, most people value transparency, good performance management, and opportunities for public participation in politics and policymaking. Thus, the quality of governance influence people’s views of the legitimacy of political leaders, and might adversely affect their trust in government. Finally, the paper concludes with a summary of key policy recommendations for proactive people-centric policy-making and good security governance for confronting public security challenges.