Set Of Governance Indicators Research Articles

Are the normative rationales of local autonomy related to democratic legitimacy justified? Evidence from 57 countries in Europe and beyond (1990–2020)

ABSTRACT Frequently, increasing local autonomy is recommended to improve democratic legitimacy and government effectiveness. This paper attempts to verify to what extent these normative rationales are empirically sound. By using observations of local autonomy from the LAI 2.0 project (57 countries from 1990 to 2020) as independent variables and a set of governance indicators as dependent variables, we examine the possible impacts of local autonomy on various input-, output-, but also throughput-related aspects of legitimacy. The results show that local autonomy positively influences various aspects of input and throughput legitimacy, but not across the entire array of examined indicators. Our fixed effects regression models indicate that local autonomy is significantly related to the existence of elected local government, quality of democracy, accountability, transparency, equality of participation and openness. This research allows us to justify the normative claims of local autonomy facilitating efforts towards a more legitimate functioning of local governments.

Development of Governance Indicators for Accessible and Inclusive Urban Developments (AIUDs)

This paper responds to the concern with the lack of public governance indicators for Accessible and Inclusive Urban Developments (AIUDs) despite agreements in the literature and in practice to develop field-specific governance indicators to resolve intricate problems. AIUD is known as a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectorial field requiring various sectors’ involvement. The resources needed to resolve this issue are scattered across diverse sectors. Furthermore, accessibility for and inclusion of disabled and elderly people is considered a global challenge. International organizations like the United Nations (UN), the Inclusion International (II) and the World Bank (WB) have addressed this concern. The UN prioritized this vital issue in its robust Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (2015-2030). AIUDs significantly impacted social inclusion, human welfare and economic development warrants developing governance indicators. This facilitates decision making, international performance comparisons, benchmarking, assessing governance quality and adopting corrective measures which improve the service delivery system. This study endeavours to develop a set of governance indicators for AIDUs in the UAE through a systematic literature review and the inputs gleaned from a group of experts by administering a questionnaire survey.

How a Good Governance of Institutions Can Reduce Poverty and Inequality in Society for Supporting a Sustainable Economic Development?

The main aim of this study is to analyze how institutional change, measured with a set of governance indicators, can reduce poverty and inequality in society that are essential prerequisites for supporting sustainable economic growth of nations. This study investigates 191 countries to explain the relationships between institutional variables and socioeconomic factors of nations with different level of development. Central findings suggest that a good governance of institutions supports a reduction of poverty and income inequality in society. In particular, results here show that the critical role of good governance for reducing inequality and poverty has a higher effect in countries with stable economies than emerging and fragile economies. Overall, then, this study reveals that countries should focus on institutional change directed to improve governance effectiveness and rule of law that can reduce the poverty and inequality, and as a consequence support the long-run socioeconomic development of nations.

Development of indicators for assessment of Lake Malawi Basin in an Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) framework

This paper sought to understand the current state of the management environment of Lake Malawi Basin, deduce a lake vision and develop indicators for assessing Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) in the lake basin. The premise of the study was that targeted indicators are necessary to effectively monitor the lake basin and manage it sustainably. The study focused on the Malawian side of the lake. Interviews, field observations and review of existing lake management and indicator development approaches around the world were the methods employed. It was found that Malawi lacks focus on lakes in its strategies and the existing management of the lake is on a sector-to-sector basis with little coordination. Furthermore, the capacity of lake-related sector institutions is hampered by inadequate resources and unstable flow of funds. It was concluded that the current management of the lake basin is unsustainable and there is need to comprehensively monitor the lake basin as well as formulate and implement management plans and strategies that are based on the knowledge obtained from targeted monitoring. A set of governance indicators was developed taking into account the characteristics of the lake, the values that it offers and the threats that it is facing.