Publication

This paper contributes to the literature which measures the quality of states' executive branches and their bureaucracies. The author argues that there is very little agreement on what constitutes high-quality government and outlines four approaches that have been used. The paper rejects the assessment of state governance according to the provision of public services and other outputs. Instead, the author suggests a two-dimensional framework of using capacity and autonomy as a measure of executive branch quality. This framework explains the conundrum of why low-income countries are advised to reduce bureaucratic autonomy while high-income ones seek to increase it.