Governance Matters

The new report Governance Matters VII: Governance Indicators for 1996-2007, authored by Daniel Kaufmann, Aart Kraay, and Massimo Mastruzzi, has just been released. It contains the updated and expanded set of Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) for 212 countries and territories. The current publication is the seventh such report in an ongoing research series and it measures six dimensions of governance: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption.

The authors define governance as:

…the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised. This includes the process by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced; the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies; and the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them.

Key highlights of this new study demonstrate:

• The power of measuring governance, drawing on the reports of thousands of stakeholders worldwide
• That good governance is not the sole preserve of rich countries, and, conversely, that some developed countries also exhibit governance challenges
• That even in the relatively short period of less than a decade reforming countries in many corners of the world do make progress in improving governance and curbing corruption