Sustainable Governance Indicators

The project is designed to create a comprehensive data pool on government-related activities in the countries considered the world's most developed free-market democracies.

In addition, it uses international comparisons to provide evidence-based input for reform-related public discourse taking place in these countries.

[1] The Bertelsmann Foundation is an operational think tank that encourages social change and aims to foster sustainability by identifying nascent challenges early on and by developing strategies to face these issues.

In an attempt to identify and reduce subjective bias, the SGI project selects experts representing both domestic and external views as well as the viewpoints of political scientists and economists.

[4] Using a similar approach to BTI, the SGI evaluate the extent to which OECD member states are in a position, given changing domestic and international conditions, to implement the reforms necessary for ensuring their future viability.

By measuring the need for reform along with the effectiveness of existing initiatives, the SGI aims to identify the best policy solutions for promoting democracy and a market economy.

At the same time, the leading group also includes New Zealand, with its British heritage, and continental European Switzerland, two nations with different political and state welfare traditions.

Standard typologies in comparative political science are insufficient to explain the Status Index ranking of the OECD nations.