IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jodeso/v25y2009i2p253-274.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring African Governance

Author

Listed:
  • Hazel M. McFerson

    (Associate Professor, International Affairs George Mason University. [email: hmcferso@gmu.edu])

Abstract

A profusion of governance measures has emerged over the past decade. The major issue is whether governance should be understood only by its attributes (thus measured by process indicators) or also by its impact (thus measured also by outcome indicators). The article classifies the existing measures in three categories—indicators of governance and corruption, measures of civil liberties and human rights, specialized surveys—and discusses in greater depth the two comprehensive surveys: the World Governance Indicators, which are focused on the governance attributes of accountability, participation, transparency and rule of law; and the recent Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which includes in its 57 indicators useful outcome dimensions but also indicators weakly related to governance. Streamlining the Ibrahim Index to weed out these indicators will improve its clarity and utility and turn it into the standard measure of governance in Africa—perhaps also replicable for other regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Hazel M. McFerson, 2009. "Measuring African Governance," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 25(2), pages 253-274, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:25:y:2009:i:2:p:253-274
    DOI: 10.1177/0169796X0902500206
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0169796X0902500206
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0169796X0902500206?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Kaufmann & Aart Kraay, 2008. "Governance Indicators: Where Are We, Where Should We Be Going?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 23(1), pages 1-30, January.
    2. Simon Johnson, 2008. "Two Comments on "Governance Indicators: Where Are We, Where Should We Be Going?" by Daniel Kaufmann and Aart Kraay-super-1," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 23(1), pages 31-36, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Di Guardo, Maria Chiara & Marrocu, Emanuela & Paci, Raffaele, 2016. "The effect of local corruption on ownership strategy in cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4225-4241.
    2. Mireille Razafindrakoto & François Roubaud & Jean-Michel Wachsberger, 2013. "Institutions, gouvernance et croissance de long terme à Madagascar : l'enigme et le paradoxe," Working Papers DT/2013/13, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    3. Gebka, Bartosz & Kanungo, Rama Prasad & Wildman, John, 2024. "The transition from COVID-19 infections to deaths: Do governance quality and corruption affect it?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 235-253.
    4. Navaz Naghavi & Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik & Devinder Kaur, 2018. "Financial Liberalization And Stock Market Efficiency: Measuring The Threshold Effects Of Governance," Annals of Financial Economics (AFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(04), pages 1-24, December.
    5. Ani Ter-Mkrtchyan & Aimee L. Franklin, 2020. "Global Financial System Outcomes after 2008: A Longitudinal Comparison," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Joao Albino‐Pimentel & Pierre Dussauge & J. Myles Shaver, 2018. "Firm non‐market capabilities and the effect of supranational institutional safeguards on the location choice of international investments," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(10), pages 2770-2793, October.
    7. Clò, Stefano & Marvasi, Enrico & Ricchiuti, Giorgio, 2023. "State-owned Enterprises in the global market: Varieties of government control and internationalization strategies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 25-40.
    8. Tung Son Ha & Vu Tuan Chu & Mai Tuyet Thi Nguyen & Dung Hoai Thi Nguyen & Anh Ngoc Thi Nguyen, 2021. "The impact of Greenfield investment on domestic entrepreneurship," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Mutarindwa, Samuel & Schäfer, Dorothea & Stephan, Andreas, 2021. "Differences in African banking systems: causes and consequences," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 561-581, August.
    10. Isabel Gallego-Álvarez & Miguel Rodríguez-Rosa & Purificación Vicente-Galindo, 2021. "Are Worldwide Governance Indicators Stable or Do They Change over Time? A Comparative Study Using Multivariate Analysis," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(24), pages 1-19, December.
    11. Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2013. "Evaluating Governance Indexes: Critical and Less Critical Questions," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-068, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Zechariah Langnel & Ponlapat Buracom, 2020. "Governance, health expenditure and infant mortality in sub‐Saharan Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(4), pages 673-685, December.
    13. Gaoussou Diarra & Patrick Plane, 2014. "Assessing the World Bank's Influence on the Good Governance Paradigm," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 473-487, December.
    14. Francesco Angelini & Guido Candela & Massimiliano Castellani, 2020. "Governance efficiency with and without government," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 54(1), pages 183-200, January.
    15. Jonathan Batten & Xuan Vinh Vo, 2010. "The determinates of equity portfolio holdings," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(14), pages 1125-1132.
    16. Krammer, Sorin M.S. & Gören, Erkan, 2021. "Wired in? Genetic traits and entrepreneurship around the world," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    17. Dixit Avinash K, 2010. "Democracy, Autocracy and Bureaucracy," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-47, January.
    18. Donatella Baiardi & Simona Scabrosetti, 2020. "Does the quality of political institutions matter for the effectiveness of environmental taxes? An empirical analysis on CO2 emissions," Working papers 92, Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica.
    19. Gupta, Sanjeev & Kangur, Alvar & Papageorgiou, Chris & Wane, Abdoul, 2014. "Efficiency-Adjusted Public Capital and Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 164-178.
    20. Benczes, István & Rezessy, Gergely, 2013. "Governance in Europe, Trends and Fault Lines," Public Finance Quarterly, Corvinus University of Budapest, vol. 58(2), pages 133-147.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:25:y:2009:i:2:p:253-274. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.