ABSTRACT
In the language of research, party system traits are the independent variables, and country governance scores are the dependent variables. Moreover, electoral democracies with stable party systems rate higher on all six indicators except Regulatory Quality. According to the normative values of democratic theory, the presence of competitive, aggregative, stable systems of political parties contributes to better country governance. Country governance is undoubtedly affected by party politics, but it is also affected by many other factors. In general, the mean Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGIs) scores were significantly higher for the 189 countries with parties than for the fifteen countries lacking elections and parties. In contrast to the regression analyses, Viscosity shows no consistent significant relationships to the country governance indicators over all 212 countries. Although the WGIs have their critics, they are widely recognized as the best data set available on country governance.
