| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
Myth #1: Governance and anticorruption are one and the same. We define governance as the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised for the common good. This includes the process by which those in authority are selected, monitored, and replaced (the political dimension); the government’s capacity to effectively manage its resources and implement sound policies (the economic dimension); and the respect of citizens and the state for the country’s institutions (the institutional respect dimension). By contrast, corruption is defined more narrowly as the ‘abuse of public office for private gain.’
Myth #2: Governance and corruption cannot be measured. It is true that less than a dozen years ago virtually no internationally comparable measures of governance or corruption existed. But in recent years, the World Bank and others have sought to remedy this. At the World Bank, we have constructed aggregate governance indicators that cover more than 200 countries, based on more than 350 variables obtained from dozens of institutions worldwide. Our indicators cover the following six dimensions of governance: voice and accountability; political stability and the absence of major violence and terror; government effectiveness; regulatory quality; rule of law; and control of corruption.22
Kaufmann observes that while the indicators represent a big step forward, there are measurement challenges.23 He points out that margins of error should not be treated as trivial and that caution in interpreting the results is warranted—one should not precisely rank countries.24 Kaufmann acknowledges, however, that these margins of error have declined and are now substantially lower than for any individual measure of corruption, governance or the investment climate.25 As a result, the World Bank’s governance indicators are used worldwide for monitoring performance, for country assessments and for research.26
Kaufmann points out that the remaining eight myths about corruption and governance include the following: