Abstract

CEJUDO, Guillermo; SANCHEZ, Gilberto  and  ZABALETA, Dionisio. (Almost non-existent) Conceptual Debate on the Quality of the Government. Polít. gob [online]. 2009, vol.16, n.1, pp. 115-156. ISSN 1665-2037.

In recent years, and from different social disciplines, the quality of the government has gained relevance as a topic in the international debate. Scholars and international organizations have developed a variety of methodologies that try to explain the causes and the effects of the quality of government on social, economic, and political development. Despite this emergent industry of methodologies and indicators, the conceptual discussion of the definition of quality of government itself has been under-studied. This has led to a set of conceptual inconsistencies and weaknesses. In this paper, we present a brief discussion of the main perspectives developed on this topic, discuss the ways in which this notion has been defined, and point to their main shortcomings. Finally, we offer some criteria to develop a more useful and conceptually defensible definition of quality of government.

Keywords : quality of government; control of discretion; impartiality; good government; exercise of power; institutional design.