This dataset includes 30 indicators for 16 developing countries, representing 51% of the world’s population, for the years 1996 and 2000.

The data includes 5 indicators each within 6 arenas of governance:

1. Civil Society: the ways citizens become aware of and raise political issues;
2. Political Society: the way societal interests are aggregated in politics;
3. Government: the rules for stewardship of the system as a whole;
4. Bureaucracy: the rules guiding how policies are implemented;
5. Economic Society: how state-market relations are structured; and,
6. Judiciary: the rules for how disputes are settled.

The methodology for collecting the data is described in the paper Assessing Governance: Methodological Challenges.

We emphasize that the use and interpretation of governance data (as with any data) needs to be done with care.