Governance Indicators : Approaches, Progress, Promise

As difficult as it might seem to define governance, it appears to be that much more difficult to measure it. Since the World Bank Institute launched the Worldwide Governance Indicators in the late 1990s, the governance indicators field has flourished and experienced significant advances in terms of methodology, data coverage and quality, and policy relevance. Other major initiatives have added to a momentum that propelled research on governance indicators seen in few other academic fields in the economic and social sciences. Given these developments and the prominence and policy relevance the field of governance indicator research has achieved, the time is ripe to take stock and ask what has been accomplished, what the shortcomings and potentials might be, and what steps present themselves as a way forward.

This volume-- the fifth edition in an annual series tackling different aspects of governance around the world-- assesses what has been achieved, identifies strengths and weaknesses of current work, and points to issues that need to be tackled in order to advance the field, both in its academic importance as well as in its policy relevance. In short, the contributions to this volume explore the scope of existing governance indices and indicator frameworks, elaborate on current challenges in measuring and analysing governance, and consider how to overcome them.

Helmut K. Anheier, Professor of Sociology and past President, Hertie School of Governance, Matthias Haber, Research Scientist, Hertie School of Governance,Mark A. Kayser, Professor of Applied Methods and Comparative Politics, Hertie School of Governance

Helmut K. Anheier is Professor of Sociology and past President of the Hertie School of Governance.

Matthias Haber was (at the time of writing) Research Scientist for the Governance Report at the Hertie School of Governance and leader of the governance indicators team.

Mark A. Kayser is Professor of Applied Methods and Comparative Politics at the Hertie School of Governance.

The Hertie School of Governance is an international teaching and research centre of excellence in Berlin, Germany that prepares students for leadership positions in government, business, and civil society. An internationally-recruited faculty, interdisciplinary in outlook, research, and teaching, offers analytically-challenging and practice-oriented courses on governance, policy analysis, management, and leadership and helps students grow intellectually in a professional, research-intensive environment, characterised by public debate and engagement. The School was founded in 2003 as a project of the Hertie Foundation, which remains its major partner.