This highly accessible book investigates the rankings that increasingly influence perceptions of countries' governance and civil rights.

Introduction: the local-global life of indicators: law, power and resistance Kevin Davis, Benedict Kingsbury and Sally Engle Merry; Part I. Global Indicators of Governance, Corruption, and Rule of Law: 1. International organizations and the production of indicators: the case of freedom house Christopher G. Bradley; 2. Indicators and the law: a case study of the rule of law index René Urueña; 3. Measuring corporate accountability through global indicators Galit A. Sarfaty; 4. The quest for measuring development: the role of the indicator bank María Angélica Prada Uribe; 5. Qualitative and quantitative conditionality: accountability in the EU accession and MCC processes Nikhil Dutta; Part II. Indicators in Local Contexts: 6. Rule of law indicators as a political technology of power in Romania Mihaela Serban; 7. Indicators, global expertise, and a local political drama: producing and deploying corruption perception data in postsocialist Albania Smoki Musaraj; 8. Evaluating the impact of corruption (perception) indicators on governance discourses in Kenya Migai Akech; 9. Measuring labour market efficiency: indicators that fuel an ideological war and undermine social concern and trust in the South African regulatory process Debbie Collier and Paul Benjamin; Conclusion: contesting global indicators David Nelken.