Global Governance Indices as Policy Instruments: Actionability, Transparency and Comparative Policy Analysis

Global country rankings have faced criticism for their normative character and methodology. Because of this, there have been attempts at creating so-called actionable governance indicators that provide more detailed and reform-oriented measurements of governance. This article analyzes the policy process behind the rise of actionable governance indicators and related changes in the production and use of indicators. It argues that the evolution of measurements can be understood as a process of field structuration, where various actors are entering the field of global governance assessments with rival indicator sets. But as the new actors tend to reproduce ideas and practices that already exist in the field, there are rather limited methodological improvements in the indices. However, the new actionable indicators are likely to become more influential policy instruments than rankings. This can be seen as an unintended outcome of the critique of ranking that has sparked the development of actionability. Measurements of transparency are used for analyzing the changes in the field of global governance indicators.