Ranking the World

Alexander Cooley, Jack Snyder

"Over the last decade international rankings have emerged as a critical tool used by international actors engaged in global governance. State practices and performance are now judged by a number of high profile indexes, including assessments of their levels of corruption, quality of democracy, creditworthiness, media freedom, and business environment. However, these rankings always carry value judgments, methodological choices, and implicit political agendas. This volume expertly addresses the important analytical, normative and policy issues associated with the contemporary practice of 'grading states'. The chapters explore how rankings affect our perceptions about state performance, how states react to being ranked, why some rankings exert more global influence than others, and how states have come to strategize and respond to these public judgments. It also critically examines how...