Government competitiveness

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Government competitiveness[1][2][3] is a new concept created by Tobin Im,[4] a scholar of public administration and a professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University. Since 2011, Center for Government Competitiveness (CGC) at Seoul National University has developed the Government Competitiveness (GC) index which evaluates government achievements in the various fields and furthermore provides policy recommendations to increase competitiveness of government in the future.

Description

Government competitiveness (GC) is often confounded with similar concepts. One of the prominent examples is national competitiveness. A variety of institutions have developed indices measuring the level of national competitiveness. Two indices, the World Competitiveness Scoreboard (WCS)[5] developed by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD)[6] and the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)[7] built by the World Economic Forum (WEF)[8] have come to dominate the field of competitiveness studies.

The International Institute for Management Development WCS and the World Economic Forum the Global Competitiveness Index view national competitiveness akin to how business-friendly a nation is, and focus upon economic and market indicators. As such, if a nation is a good place for foreign firms to do business and make money, it will, as a result, also be viewed as competitive. Following this logic, the role played by government then, is mainly restricted to constructing an environment that is attractive to businesses.[9]

Emphasizing the broader fields of government activities, several institutions have started to develop indicators emphasizing the role of government in driving development and national competitiveness. Prominent examples include The World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI)[10] and the Quality of Government Institute’s (QGI) (the University of Gothenburg) Quality of Government indicators(QoG).[11]

While these two indices constitute important steps toward improving our understanding of how government contributes toward competitiveness, they have also revealed numerous theoretical and methodological shortcomings related to the study of governments’ role in fostering national competitiveness.[12]

Since 2011, Center for Government Competitiveness (director: Tobin Im) has developed the GC index mainly focusing on government capacities and roles in national development.[13] After investigating the limited capabilities of existing competitiveness indicators to define and measure the level of GC, the CGC has tried to develop a novel approach to conceptualizing and measuring GC.[14] According to Ho and Im (2012), the concept of GC can be defined as “the power of government to, in light of various constraints, take resources from in and outside of the country and improve social, economic and cultural conditions of the nation in order to sustainably enhance citizens’ quality of life.” Moreover, the concepts of ‘constraints’ and ‘quality of life’[15] can be interpreted in various ways, depending on a nation’s unique environments.

The CGC builds the GC index based on David Easton’s system theory as a theoretical framework.[16] Therefore, the GC index has four sub-factors: a) input, b) throughput, c) output, and d) outcome. To measure government roles and activities in varies fields beyond economic growth, each GC sub-factor includes 339 variables measured in ten fields of government activities: a) economy, b) education, c) health and welfare, d) agriculture and food, e) general government, f) research & development (R&D), g) information and communications technology (ICT), h) energy and environment, i) culture and tourism, and j) disaster management.

File:Easton-System of political-life.PNG
Figure 1.Easton’s system theory

By considering different experiences and policy practice between developed countries and developing countries,[17] the CGC measures the level of government competitiveness by applying different criteria to the OECD and to non-OECD countries. For non-OECD countries, the eight fields of government activities are included. Specifically, the six fields of government activities, economy, education, health and welfare, agriculture and food, energy and environment, and ICT, are commonly applied to the OECD and non-OECD countries. Two more fields, the internal workings of government and overall activities of government, are included.

OECD rankings in 2014

rank countries GC score
1  United States 0.650
2  Netherlands 0.620
3  Sweden 0.619
4  Finland 0.609
5  Norway 0.602
6   Switzerland 0.587
7  Denmark 0.587
8  United Kingdom 0.575
9  Germany 0.574
10  New Zealand 0.569
11  Australia 0.565
12  Canada 0.555
13  Luxembourg 0.550
14  Iceland 0.548
15  Japan 0.543
16  France 0.521
17  Austria 0.517
18  Republic of Korea 0.516
19  Belgium 0.512
20  Ireland 0.503
21  Israel 0.479
22  Estonia 0.470
23  Spain 0.429
24  Portugal 0.406
25  Slovenia 0.404
26  Italia 0.385
27  Czech 0.382
28  Chile 0.379
29  Hungary 0.361
30  Poland 0.353
31  Slovakia 0.344
32  Greece 0.308
33  Turkey 0.300
34  Mexico 0.264

Non-OECD rankings in 2014

rank countries GC score
1  Singapore 0.705
2  Republic of Korea 0.668
3  Lithuania 0.619
4  Uruguay 0.602
5  Costa Rica 0.590
6  Qatar 0.587
7  Latvia 0.577
8  Malaysia 0.564
9  Croatia 0.560
10  Georgia 0.554
11  Tunisia 0.548
12  Bahrain 0.545
13  Brazil 0.538
14  Thailand 0.523
15  Colombia 0.519
16  Oman 0.519
17  Kazakhstan 0.516
18  Rwanda 0.512
19  Mongolia 0.508
20  Vietnam 0.508
21  China 0.503
22  Sri Lanka 0.502
23  Argentina 0.501
24  El Salvador 0.495
25  Azerbaijan 0.485
26  India 0.478
27  Peru 0.478
28  Ukraine 0.478
29  Morocco 0.477
30  Russia 0.475
31  Indonesia 0.473
32  Ghana 0.469
33  Kuwait 0.466
34  Guatemala 0.455
35  Ecuador 0.455
36  Honduras 0.451
37  Philippines 0.449
38  Paraguay 0.447
39  Senegal 0.440
40  Bolivia 0.434
41  Egypt 0.433
42  Kenya 0.429
43  Cambodia 0.425
44  Tanzania 0.424
45  East Timor 0.423
46  Uzbekistan 0.418
47  Zambia 0.416
48  Uganda 0.412
49  Ethiopia 0.411
50    Nepal 0.405
51  Laos 0.394
52  Mozambique 0.393
53  Algeria 0.390
54  Burkina Faso 0.381
55  Bangladesh 0.373
56  Mali 0.367
57  Pakistan 0.353
58  Cameroon 0.347
59  Nigeria 0.320
60  Democratic Republic of the Congo 0.250
  • Korea is exceptionally included in the non-OECD cases for a reference point
  • GC scores are rounded off to four decimal places. Therefore, the countries which seem to have the same scores have, in fact, different scores.

See also

References

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  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ For the general assessment on the two indices, see Ochel, W & Rohn, O. (2006). Ranking of countries – the WEF, IMD, Fraser and Heritage Indices. CESifo DICE Report Vol. 4 no. 2. pp. 48-60.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ (2007)Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. For the critics on the WGI and its responses, see Kaufmann, D, Kraay, A, & Mastruzzi, M.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Im, T. (2014). Government Competitiveness 2013. Seoul: CM Press (in Korean); Im, T., Kim, S., Ko, G., & Jo, W. (2014). Government Competitiveness: Theory and Evaluation Index. Seoul: Bakyoungsa (In Korean).
  15. ↑ Ho, A., & Im, T. (2012). Defining a new concept of government competitiveness. The Korean Journal of Public Administration, 50 (3), p. 13 (In Korean).
  16. ↑ Easton, D. (1953). The Political System: An Inquiry into the State of Political Science. New York: Wiley.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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