Resource of the Week: World-Wide Governance Indicators 1996-2006
By Stuart Basefsky, Contributing Editor

According to the World Bank, which makes this data available:

The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project reports aggregate and individual governance indicators for 212 countries and territories over the period 1996–2006, for six dimensions of governance:

• Voice and Accountability
• Political Stability and Absence of Violence
• Government Effectiveness
• Regulatory Quality
• Rule of Law
• Control of Corruption

The aggregate indicators combine the views of a large number of enterprise, citizen and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. The individual data sources underlying the aggregate indicators are drawn from a diverse variety of survey institutes, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations.

What’s here?

+ Individual Country Data Reports
Access Governance Indicators by country — e.g., all indicators for one country.

In this mode you can select one of 212 countries and territories, and generate charts and tables for all six governance indicators. You also have the option of comparing the results with previous years, with regional averages, or with income group averages, and you have access to the underlying individual ratings.

To begin, select a country out of the drop-down list on the lefthand side and hit “submit”. This will generate a chart reporting the percentile rank for the selected country in all six indicators for 2006 and 1998.

You will have the option of changing/adding years as well as changing comparators and/or confidence intervals. Futhermore, you can create line charts or tables displaying all the sources and the data utilized to generate the aggregate score for the selected country.

+ Access Governance Indicators for selected countries:

In this mode, you can select one of six governance indicators and a group of comparator countries for which charts, maps and tables will be generated. You will also have the option of comparing the results with previous years, with regional averages, or with income group averages, and you have access to underlying individual ratings.

To begin, select an indicator and then a region from the drop-down menus on the lefthand side, followed by the selection of countries of interest (up to 20 at a time). This will generate a chart reporting the percentile rank for the selected countries and indicator for 2006 and 1998.

You can change/add years as well as change comparators and/or confidence intervals. Futhermore, you can create world maps or tables displaying all the sources and data utilized to generate the aggregate score for the selected countries and indicator.

+ Mapping Government by Indicator

This option generates world maps colour-coding all countries according to their governance scores. To generate maps highlighting individual countries or country groups, please select One Indicator for Selected Countries and go to Map option.

Select an indicator from the drop-down menu at the top left and hit submit to continue.

Stuart Basefsky, MLS, is director of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) Documented News Service at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Shirl’s note:
Related World Bank report — Governance Matters VI: Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators, 1996-2006 — is posted on DocuTicker, our sister site.

See Also: Awards and Profiles: Cornell’s Librarian Couple, Germain and Basefsky

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 9:57 am and is filed under Resource of the Week, Source File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.