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Saturday, January 15, 2011

What happened to the Good Governance in Tunisia?

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The following notes are bases on communications from my friend RK.

http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/sc_chart.asp


."According to the Wolrd Bank Governance index, widely quoted and used by "policy makers" , Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are in the relatively "good" (50-75th) percentile in terms of one of the six standard indicators, "government effectiveness" (100 being most effective)

Tunisia scored 65.  Qatar and UAE are two in the 75+ percentile.  All the other Arab countries scored well below (Bahrain 67, Egypt 44, Palestine 21, Iraq 8). Bahrain scored  67. 

On other indicators Tunisia was also a "good" scorer (control of corruption and regulatory quality and rule of law). Have a look for yourself at the six indicators for Tunisia.

http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/sc_chart.asp?Country_ID=220&Country_Name=TUNISIA&IsOneCountry=1&AllCountries=0&ChartType=Bar&OptionalDataset=years&showbar=1&OptionalPeriodsList=7%2C#chart


BTW
Bahrainis may be interested in comparing their country with Tunisia. Here is WB index for 2007 for Bahrain.
http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/sc_chart.asp


Voice and Accountability 25 of 100

Political Stability   33.7  of 100

Government Effectiveness  67.1  of 100

Regulatory Quality 77.7   of 100

Rule of Law  67.6   of 100

Control of Corruption  68.1  of 100

http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/sc_chart.asp



My friend, RK, poses the following questions:

What does this mean for the "low scorers" that they will perversely escape the same fate as the Tunisian model BECAUSE they are poorer good governance scorers? OR maybe if this is the fate of the good scorers, then what is in store for the less "good governed" states (not to mention the other Gulf high scorers?

In any case, it certainly tells you alot about the reliability of World Bank statistics and the uselessness of the whole concept of good governance".

Well put, RK.


Way to go people of Tunisia!

7 comments:

nhusain said...

The elections in Tunisia are now going to be after 6 months. My understanding is that is going against the constitution. If the government wants to go ahead with this I would think that they should call a referendum to decide whether to have the elections sooner or later. Otherwise I think that this is an illegal move on the part of Ghanouchi. The Aljazeera correspondent already was pushing the argument that the Tunisian government has broke one of its first promises. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

nhusain said...

On the positive side Ghanouchi abolished the ministry of information. He is saying all groups will be allowed to participate peacefully. He is also saying that the judiciary is now independent of the executive. If they follow through with these things then that would be a great achievement.

nhusain said...

Cabinet meeting has been delayed in Tunisia. Thats just ridiculous unless they come up with something spectacular after the delay.

nhusain said...

It looks like the people in Tunisia are holding the testicles of new government.

nhusain said...

They resigned from the ruling party based solely on public pressure. That is something unheard of. The public should keep the pressure up. Corrupt family members arrested, the Swiss freezing funds. All very positive developments.

nhusain said...

The guy is under arrest in Saudi. Saudi made the correct decision up to now. In the future when things stabilize in Tunisia the idea of repatriating him can be brought up.

nhusain said...

Tunis ya habibi!