World Governance Index

Word Governance Index - EN Full version 81 pp.

World Governance Index

EN Summarized version 14p.

Developing a new world governance constitutes one of the major challenges of our times, perhaps the most important of all. With this in view, the Forum for a new World Governance launched a number of research projects intended to draw up a roadmap and a set a framework for our work. World governance, though touching upon several domains, is an essentially political phenomenon—in the noble sense of the term—as it ultimately concerns the collective organization of the management of the planet. Politics being above all a practical art, not a science, it relies on mainly qualitative research work. Nevertheless, quantitative tools are indispensable and remain an important complement to this type of work.

World governance is a new field of study and requires the greatest possible amount of contributions. To make sure progress is made, to get the best odds for going in the right direction, it needs to be evaluated, especially over time. In other words, it is imperative to see how it evolves. This is why we felt it was necessary to study the possibility of developing a "World Governance Indicator" (WGI). Not to be in tune with the current indicator fashion, but to get a better grasp of the problems involved and follow their evolution with sharper tools.

The index developed here constitutes a first in World Governance. Like any other prototype or first model, this WGI is most certainly perfectible; it is a tool limited, like most indicators of this type, by a number of elements, starting with the availability of the data and, to varying degrees, by the inevitable subjectivity of its inventors. All the same, made up of a series of indicators and sub-indicators, it offers a relatively precise, overall view of world governance. Over time, it will make it possible to grasp the evolution of things. The WGI was designed with a strictly scientific goal in mind, with no ulterior political motives. Renaud François, [2] who designed it, built on his important experience on the field, as well as on the conceptual know-how he had already put to work for the peace indicators he developed a few years ago with the collaboration of Arnaud Blin.

The following domains, in the form of indicators and composite indexes, were selected to achieve the development of the WGI: Peace and Security, Rule of Law, Human Rights and Participation, Sustainable Development, and Human Development.

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