The ‘Good Governance’ agenda identifies a host of desirable governance goals for developing countries but its implementation and results have been very poor. An important reason is that the framework confuses means and ends, and ignores very significant historical facts about growth in the last century. Its position as the dominant consensus sets poor countries infeasible and unachievable agendas, creating dismay and disillusion, and takes our attention away from achievable and critical governance agendas. Mushtaq Khan’s presentation examines the theoretical and empirical limits of the consensus agenda and identifies the types of governance reforms that are supported by historically informed theory.