Measurement & indicators
Tracking progress in democracy and governance around the world: lessons and methods
Monitoring progress in democracy
Authors:
Publisher:
United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and Finance , 2002
This paper focuses on the efforts of different institutions to assist governments and democracy actors with tools and methods for monitoring and assessing progress in democracy and good governance in the third wave democracy countries.
It begins with a review of trends and challenges of democracy transition and consolidation. It then provides a brief narrative of the actors and institutions in development of indicators. The larger sections dwell at length on the key issue of methods and techniques for assessment/evaluation of democracy and governance progress. The focus is on value-added of democracy assessment tools to democracy promotion and assistance at the country level.
This paper shows that after a decade, progress on democratisation in new and restored democracies show less prospects than initially expected. At another level economic prospects remain gloomy and threaten the stability of democratising countries.
This situation calls for more efforts to support both democratisation and economic development. The issues of inclusiveness, participation and partnership, sustainability and process orientation are critical for a successful process of democratisation.
Regarding the evaluation methods of democracy, the paper says that development and use of indicators has not been well received by the governments and others in developing countries. Some see them as tools for exclusion whereby donors and financiers might use the low rating of a country to justify denial of aid or set conditionality for any assistance to the country. Others have seen the use of indicators and ranking of countries as efforts to embarrass and undermine their efforts to promote democracy and good governance.
The primary use of indicators and assessments vary from one particular interest group and organization to another. However, the paper says, the relevance of assessments as promotional tools for assisting democratization should not be overlooked.
The paper concludes that what is most required in new and restored democracies today is more dialogue between leaders and their people and with other stakeholders. Only dialogue will translate the constitutional provisions and institutional frameworks of democracy into culture and practice.
