Politics, corruption, accountability & stability

This graph compares the average worldwide governance scores for nine regions spread across the globe. The scores range from -2.5 (lowest) to 2.5 (highest); here, OECD countries have the highest average, while the Former Soviet Union average ranks in the lower regions. Other regions evaluated include: Caribbean, Eastern Europe and the Baltics, Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, Latin America, South Asia, and Subsarahan Africa. Each bar on the graph measures a different indicator including: control of corruption, voice and accountability, and political stability and absence of violence.

As defined by the Worldwide Governance Indicators Project (WGI), control of corruption measures “the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as ‘capture’ of the state by elites and private interests.” Voice and accountability measures “the extent to which a country’s citizens are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association, and a free media.”

And political stability and absence of violence measures the “perceptions of the likelihoood that the government will be destabilized or overthrown by unconstitutional or violent means, including domestic violence and terrorism.” The WGI also measured indicators for government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and rule of law.