A Decade of measuring the quality of governance: governance matters 2007, worldwide governance indicators, 1996-2007

A dozen years ago virtually no internationally comparable measures of governance or corruption existed. Since then, the world has seen an explosion of empirical research aimed at measuring governance, monitoring country progress, understanding the causes and consequences of good governance for development, and learning from successes and failures. The Worldwide Governance Indicators described in this booklet are one contribution to that explosion. They have been compiled since 1996 and measure the quality of governance in well over 200 countries, based on 33 data sources produced by 30 different organizations worldwide. They capture six key dimensions of governance, namely: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption.