The Worldwide Diffusion of Codes of Good Governance

This chapter goes beyond the convergence/divergence dilemma by analysing change in CG practice in terms of the adoption of some codes of good governance rather than as the adoption of one particular model. It considers the speed of adoption of a code as a process of knowledge transfer across countries, driven by a mixture of effectiveness and legitimization reasons. The empirical study considers fifteen common-law countries and twenty civillaw countries, and finds that the development of a first code of CG was faster in countries with greater exposure to foreign investment (but not to foreign trade) and with a common law system.