Peut-on mesurer la qualité des administrations publiques grâce aux indicateurs de gouvernance ?

Résumé 0

Measuring Bureaucratic Quality in Governance Indicators “Indicators of governance” designed for qualitative and comparative approaches of institutions in various countries are being increasingly used both in research and in political decision-making. These data, originally used mainly in academic analyses of economic growth, now has an influence on the conditions governing aid to development. Some groups of indicators contain measurements of the quality of public administrations, and could thus make it possible to compare table of administrative performance on an international level. However, the use of such data for this type of study remains rather limited, first of all because its validity is often contested, but also because of the difference between general research on public administration and research on development and/or economic growth (the latter two having been pioneers in the empirical use of these indicators). In addition, the fact that most of these indicators come from data collections for economists has been another obstacle to its use for public administration. However, the debate has been launched again thanks to recent publications featuring a comparative international study of public administrations. This article reviews the sources of the most frequently used data and discusses how the latter make it possible to measure the quality of public administration. It brings to light the strengths and weaknesses of these indicators and verifies their validity by comparing different international rankings. Finally, it gives a first preliminary ranking of OECD countries.