• Methodology

Methodology

This paper focuses on the methods used for collecting data in 22 countries for the World Governance Survey (WGS).

The Survey was based on the interview of a cross-section of well-informed persons (WIPs) in each country. These individuals were experienced in and informed about governance issues. The premise of this approach was that they would be able to provide the most knowledgeable ratings about governance as well as qualitative comments to back up their assessments

The paper begins with an assessment of different ways in which governance has been studied by others so as to place the survey in a comparative methodological context. The authors then proceed by discussing the implementation of the survey, highlighting some of the problems encountered. The next section deals with data analysis. The concluding section presents an overall assessment of the value of the data.

The authors believe that experience of the survey indicates the ability to generate valid and valuable data that for the first time includes the voices of local WIPs – despite the contested nature of the governance concept and the considerable methodological problems in collecting data on this set of issues.

The authors claim that WGS is also novel for comparative work, in that it draws assessments from a cross-section of local experts within each of the survey countries, rather than from outside experts or secondary data.

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