Recent research in economics emphasizes the importance of the quality of public governance, not only for its direct effects on the welfare of the population, but for its general impact on growth and economic development. The quality of public governance is a key input into the overall investment climate in any country. Developing effective institutions of public governance has been a particular challenge in countries undergoing economic transition since the 1990s. Now that most of these countries have achieved the creation of basic market institutions, more attention has concentrated on reforming and improving government administration, regulation, and budgeting in line with world best practices. Russia is no exception: public administration and budgetary reform have been near the top of the government's agenda for several years.
Helping to improve public governance is also a high priority for the World Bank in most of the countries where it works. In addition to specific programs and projects, the World Bank actively monitors indicators related to the quality of governance, which allow countries to benchmark themselves both against other countries and relative to their own past. In addition, every year, the World Bank compiles a report: Governance Matters: Worldwide Governance Indicators. This report, which was released on XX for 2007, aggregates a number of indicators and rankings of various world organizations and agencies related to public governance in six dimensions: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. The ratings in the 2007 Governance Matters place Russia as above 20-30 percent of the 20X countries surveyed by most of these indicators, although higher (close to 40 percent) for “government effectiveness.” Furthermore, these rankings have not changed much since the first Governance Matters was released in 1996.
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