Volume 18, 2016 Issue #4 – Governance Indices, Politics & Expert Knowledge

Comparing Freedom House Democracy Scores to Alternative Indices and Testing for Political Bias: Are US Allies Rated as More Democratic by Freedom House?

Author Nils D. Steiner

Subjects:
democracy index,
Freedom House, measurement,
political bias, bilateral relations,
validity,
democracy

Abstract: Several scholars have criticized the Freedom House democracy ratings as being politically biased. Do countries indeed incorrectly receive better ratings that have stronger political ties with the United States? This article tests whether differences between a number of alternative indices of democracy and the FH ratings can be explained in a systematic manner by variables that record relationships between the US and the countries under investigation. Differentiating between the periods before 1988 and after 1989, strong and consistent evidence of a substantial bias in the FH ratings is obtained for the former period. For the latter period, the estimates are less consistent, but still hint at the presence of a political bias in the FH scores.

Transfer Agents, Knowledge Authority, and Indices of Regulatory Quality: A Comparative Analysis of the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Author: Fabrizio De Francesco

Subjects:
international organizations, policy benchmarking,
good governance,
regulation, transnational governance,

Abstract: In the past two decades, international organizations have been designing and promoting transnational benchmarks for evaluating the quality of governance. The World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have been competing in devising and legitimizing indices across policy areas. Previous studies have demonstrated how international organizations can influence national governments by means of governance indices. However, a comparative analysis is still missing of the choices international organizations have made in establishing their own indices of good governance. By focusing on regulatory reform, this paper attempts to fill this gap. It first sets a framework to compare the different types of authority that organizations can pursue through benchmarking. It then applies this framework to the specific case of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Bank, to examine how they differ in their conceptions of and use of policy benchmarking.

Effects of Indicator Use: A Comparison of Poverty Measuring Instruments at the World Bank

Author: Katja Freistein

Subjects:
indicators,
comparative political institutions,
international organisations,
poverty,
manipulation,
governmentality

Abstract: Diffusing their knowledge and enhancing the potency of their ideas, international organisations like the World Bank employ indicators and other instruments that seem objective and easily accessible in any given context. Beyond producing certain kinds of knowledge and governance effects in the global sphere, the creation of new indicators can be understood as a social practice by international organisations that ensures their competence and mandate to act, for instance against poverty. Drawing on indicator research, Focauldian governmentality studies and neo-institutionalism, the article studies and compares several key examples of poverty indicators used by the World Bank to identify the effects of employing indicators on international organisations.

Global Governance Indices as Policy Instruments: Actionability, Transparency and Comparative Policy Analysis

Author: Tero Erkkilä

Subjects:
governance indicators, policy instruments, ranking, actionability, transparency, comparative policy analysis, qualitative content analysis

Abstract: Global country rankings have faced criticism for their normative character and methodology. Because of this, there have been attempts at creating so-called actionable governance indicators that provide more detailed and reform-oriented measurements of governance. This article analyzes the policy process behind the rise of actionable governance indicators and related changes in the production and use of indicators. It argues that the evolution of measurements can be understood as a process of field structuration, where various actors are entering the field of global governance assessments with rival indicator sets. But as the new actors tend to reproduce ideas and practices that already exist in the field, there are rather limited methodological improvements in the indices. However, the new actionable indicators are likely to become more influential policy instruments than rankings. This can be seen as an unintended outcome of the critique of ranking that has sparked the development of actionability. Measurements of transparency are used for analyzing the changes in the field of global governance indicators.

The Politics of Green Knowledge: A Comparative Study of Support for and Resistance to Sustainability and Environmental Indicators

Author: Jean-Pierre Le Bourhis

Subjects:
France, European Union, environmental policy, comparative policy analysis, political sociology, indicators, instruments of government

Abstract: Since the 1990s, increasing environmental concerns have spurred the need for information and stimulated the development of numerous indicators, yet without a real impact on corresponding policies. To better account for this weakness, a political sociology approach to analyze how these government tools was developed in two cases: the French generic system of sustainable development indicators; and the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive based on indicators of water status. Comparative analysis shows that in both cases a coalition of actors successfully resisted the effective use of indicators by redesigning them and limiting the impact of quantified environmental information on policy making.

Under-Five Mortality: Comparing National Levels and Changes over the Last Decade Across Low-Income Countries

Authors: John Richards & Aidan R. Vining

Subjects:

child mortality, female literacy, governance, government effectiveness, immunization, fertility rate, mosquito nets

Abstract: In 2000, the UN launched the Millennium Development Goals. This article addresses national-level factors associated with achieving the fourth goal, lower under-five mortality, among 69 low-income countries from early in the new millennium to the early years of the present decade. The factors fall in three categories: measures of health sector inputs, public health programs and social determinants. They range from the relatively simple, increasing child immunization, to the complex, improving access to safe water and sanitation. A government effectiveness measure is also included. In the level regressions, female literacy, total fertility, percentage living on below $1.25/day and child immunization are statistically significant in all regression specifications. In the decade change regressions, increased immunization, increased use of mosquito nets, increased percentage living on above $1.25/day and level of national governance are all significant. Realizing mortality below 40/1000 live births (achieved by the top quarter) requires good performance on the complex factors, not only the simple ones.