Be informed about your country's governance!

Let me share something really exciting that I learned this semester in my optional subject, "Governance and Public trust". Some of you, like me, won't know what governance is. Governance is the process of decision making and the process by which these decisions are implemented or not implemented.

Unlike government, governance includes all the stakeholders. Three main stakeholders of governance  are civil society, government, and market. These three make governance at national. Good governance is a normative (opinion based) concept. Good  governance includes parameter, such as it is  participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. For further information on this topic, click here.

Different agencies calculate governance standards. These include World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNESCAP, etc. Here I will tell you a website where you can find governance percentile rank ( more rank near 100 more high is the governance level) of your country through parameters such as government effectiveness and efficiency, rule of law, voice and accountability, etc. You can compare the rank of your country  with other countries and the rank of these indicator under different political regimes.

Step 1

Go to this website  http://databank.worldbank.org/data/views/variableselection/selectvariables.aspx?source=Worldwide-Governance-Indicators

Step 2

You will see Country, Timeline, and Series. Select the wanted series (parameter), timeline, and country. If you will select two countries then you can compare the selected indicator over the selected timeline. 

Step 3

After you have selected your required information look at the information given in the top right corner. You would see table, map, graph, etc. Click on the type in which you want to use this data. You can also download graphs in excel sheets and the click line graph icon to form a line graph.

 

I enjoyed this practical, I hope you will. Even if you are not interested just try this activity once. With these indicators you can have informed opinions. You can argue on the basis of facts.