Good Government

Reviews / Votes

All too often today research in political science is irrelevant and uninspiring, shying away from the ''big'' questions that actually matter in people's lives. Good Government shows that this does not have to be the case. Tackling some of the ''biggest'' questions of the contemporary era - What is good government? Where does it come from? How can it be measured and how does it matter? - this book will prove invaluable to academics and policy makes alike.
- Sheri Berman, Barnard College, US What is ''Good Government?'' Few doubt that it is better to have a ''good government'' than a ''bad'' one, but few of us have thought carefully about what makes for good government vs. bad. Soren Holmberg and Bo Rothstein's excellent volume helps fill in this gap. Though this book is more than this, but the focus on corruption is particularly fascinating. We know that corruption is ''bad'' but where does it come from? Why are some legislatures more corrupt than others? Why does the media sometimes collude? Why are women less easily corrupted than men? These are just a few of the many fascinating questions this volume explores. Bridging democratic theory, public policy and institutional analysis is one of the first that gives us some practical insight into the obviously important question: what makes some governments ''better'' than others?
--- Sven Steinmo, European University Institute, Italy