MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina rates 103 out of 190 countries in institutional quality

Long obsessed with its image in the eyes of such international monitors as the United Nations Human Development Index or Transparency International, Argentina has had its own international Institutional Quality Index for the past two years.

The 2008 version, measuring 190 countries around the world in conjunction with the International Policy Network of London, was launched this week in Buenos Aires by CIIMA and ESEADE two local research centres. The index (a composite of nine separate indices measuring the rule of law, transparency, accountability, freedom of the press and five different aspects of economic freedom) shows Argentina down by eight places to 103rd (and down from 9th to 11th in the Americas). This does not necessarily mean that Argentina is either worse or better this year than last, CIIMA directors Martin Krause and Aldo Abram explain, but that other countries are making faster institutional improvements ? especially in Eastern Europe but also in some unexpected places such as Lesotho or the Dominican Republic. Argentina fares dramatically better when the quality of life (based on the UN Human Development Index criteria of life expectancy, literacy and per capita income) is measured. Here Argentina is 38th, while Venezuela (174th of the 192 in the general index) is 74th and Cuba 51st. Nevertheless, the comparison shows overwhelmingly that economic development and institutional quality go hand in hand even if the economic superpowers do not emerge on top. In a league headed by Denmark with Myanmar bringing up the rear, the top G7 country is Canada in 9th place ? islands and small countries occupy the leading positions. But the same 20 G7, European, North American and Oceania countries top the economic and institutional rankings alike. The Buenos Aires Herald asked Krause and Abram how their index measured freedom of the press, given that the World Economic Forum's Global Report on Information Technology released early this week had ranked Argentina a lowly 114th out of 127 countries in this respect. Krause replied that Argentina was ranked in 98th place last year and 100th now. Their report was based on the Freedom House index, which bases its criteria not only on how freely the media express their opinion but also on access to information (including contact with government leaders) and political pressures. The CIIMA/ESEADE index is dedicated to the belief that governments should not only be judged by their results but by how they maintain the norms of an institutional framework. (BAH).-