You are here: / About

The Berggruen Governance Index Project (BGI) analyzes the relationship between democratic accountability, state capacity and the provision of public goods. It builds upon prior work that examined the impact of governance and democracy on the quality of life. It is a collaborative project between the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Berggruen Institute.

The 2024 Index consists of three major indices: Quality of Government, Quality of Democracy, and Quality of Life. All three contain more specific subindices, which are formed by aggregating individual indicators. Each index interacts with the other two to form the overall governance picture. Our analytical model sees Quality of Democracy as affecting both Quality of Life and Quality of Government, which in turn also shapes Quality of Life.

Data and methodology

Each dimension is measured by aggregating individual indicators into subindices, which then form QoG, QoD, and QoL. We have been careful to only select indicators that are regularly updated and available over long periods of time. For the aggregation of subindices and indices, we use Bayesian latent variable models. Our dataset covers the 2000-2021 period and includes 145 countries.

UCLA team

Helmut Anheier,
principal investigator

Helmut K. Anheier is Adjunct Professor of Social Welfare, and Professor of Sociology at the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany. He served as President of the Hertie School from 2009 to 2018, held a Chair of Sociology at the Max-Weber-Institute of Heidelberg University and served as founding Academic Director of the Centre for Social Investment and Innovation. He is the Academic Co-Director of the Dahrendorf Forum, a joint initiative by the Hertie School and the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research centers on social innovation, nonprofits, civil society and philanthropy; governance; cultural policy; organizational studies; and indicator systems. Anheier was the principal academic lead of the Governance Report (Oxford University Press), and is editor-in-chief of Global Perspectives (University of California Press). Anheier is author of over 500 publications, many in leading journals and with top university presses. He has received various national and international awards. He received his doctorate from Yale University in 1986, was a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Policy Studies, Professor of Public Policy and Social Welfare at UCLA , Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. Before embarking on an academic career, he served as Social Affairs Officer at the United Nations.

Joseph Saraceno,
manager & data scientist

Joseph is an experienced researcher who has conducted and managed studies across academic, industry, and government contexts.  He holds a Ph.D in Political Science & International Relations and a Master’s degree in Applied Economics and Econometrics both from the University of Southern California (USC), and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from UCLA. His doctoral research utilized novel quantitative methods to evaluate the representation of marginalized groups within American political institutions and has been published in Journal of Politics, The Forum, and other peer-reviewed outlets. Prior to joining the Luskin School of Public Affairs, he worked as quantitative researcher at Meta (formerly Facebook) and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Edward Knudsen,
research associate

Edward Knudsen is a Research Associate for the Dahrendorf Forum and Affiliate Research Fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre. His focus is on transatlantic politics and economics. At the Hertie School, he has worked on projects examining comparative soft power for the German Foreign Office and has served as editorial assistant for the journal Global Perspectives. Previously, he worked in the “US and the Americas Programme” at Chatham House on projects that explored the future of transatlantic economic and security relations. He also conducted research in economic history at the University of California, Berkeley, and Humboldt University in Berlin. He holds a master’s in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s degree with majors in history and economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include the historical origins of economic ideas, linkages between economic policy and security policy and the future of transatlantic relations.

Olga Kononykhina,
data analyst

Olga Kononykhina is a quantitative sociologist and a data scientist.  She is a Ph.D. researcher at the Chair for Statistics and Data Science in Social Sciences and the Humanities at Ludwig Maximilian University, Germany. She is also a data scientist at ZiviZ gGmbH and is involved in data consulting projects as a freelancer. Currently, her work is focused on inventing “tinder for jobs,” improving machine learning algorithms for national and international job classifications. Her full portfolio can be found at www.bettermeasured.world

Regina A. List,
editor

Regina A. List is an independent editor, researcher and writer with many years of experience in coordinating multicountry, multiresearcher projects and pulling together edited volumes, textbooks and similar complicated publications. Among other positions, she was Managing Editor of the Governance Report series, housed at the Hertie School (Berlin) and published by Oxford University Press, and Manager and Regional Research Coordinator for the Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project at the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies. She earned a master’s in International Development from American University (Washington, D.C.) and a bachelor’s in political science and Spanish from University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee).

Berggruen Institute team

Dawn Nakagawa,
executive vice president

Dawn Nakagawa is the Executive Vice President of the Berggruen Institute, which was launched in 2010 with Dawn as its first employee. She develops strategy, develops and launches projects, oversees management of finances and operations, and builds the team. The mission of the organization is to deepen our understanding of the great transformations of our time and develop social and political institutions adapted to them. The key projects of the institute include the Future of Democracy, Transformations of the Human, Globalization and the New Multilateralism, and Economic Transformations. Special initiatives include the Berggruen Prize and Noema Magazine.

Dawn is co-director of the Future of Democracy program area and oversees special projects such as the Renovating Democracy for the Digital Society project, which she launched in 2016 with Matt Browne, the founder of Global Progress. The project works with policymakers and academics to understand the impact of changes in communications technology on democratic institutions and how to adapt.

Before joining the Berggruen Institute, Dawn was the Executive Vice President of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a global affairs organization based in Los Angeles. In her position, she oversaw all aspects of the organization and drove several special initiatives, including the Energy and Security Committee and the Equitable Globalization Committee. She also co-directed the California Adaptation Advisory Council to the State of California under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Prior to joining the Pacific Council, Dawn worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company, where she developed growth strategy for Fortune 500 companies in a variety of industries, focusing on the high-tech and biotech industries. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from McGill University in Canada. Dawn sits on the advisory board of Blueprints and the Values Schools charter organization, Think Long Committee, Inc. Dawn is a founding member of the LA chapter of Awesome Foundation. She lives in Hermosa Beach, California, with her husband, Gene, and two children, Ty and Jada.

Nicole Grunwald Silver,
senior program manager

Nicole Grunwald Silver is Senior Program Manager at the Berggruen Institute. She is responsible for managing the annual Berggruen Prize nomination process, supporting the executive vice president in liaising with the board of directors, and promoting the work of the 21st Century Council.

Before joining the Institute, Nicole managed John Legend’s philanthropic work through FREEAMERICA and The Show Me Campaign at Propper Daley. With The Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment at UCLA, she advanced key programmatic work leveraging the power of art and entertainment for impact. Previously in New York City, Nicole served as associate program manager at the Clinton Foundation, focusing on issues of gender equality and early childhood education. She also served on the communications team and on President Clinton’s correspondence team.

Nicole graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California, where she received her bachelor’s degree in International Relations. She speaks German and Spanish.

Ann Scott Root,
analyst

Ann Scott Root is a consultant to the Berggruen Governance Index Project, where she uses her background in cognitive diversity to bring a layperson’s voice to the Index’s public-facing narratives. Ann’s work explores consciousness as the decisive factor in rethinking and addressing the meta-problems facing humanity and our planet’s ecosystem. She is the founder and president of the nonprofit Depth Typology Center, which proposes a holistic model of Jungian thought, bridging the gap between depth psychology and psychological type, and the interaction and interplay of the conscious and unconscious aspects of psyche. Her approach as a coach, consultant and trainer melds psychodynamic, person-centered, positive and depth psychology orientations with psychological type. As the founder and principal consultant of the people development consultancy Thrive Dynamics, she uses her decades of diverse experience in sales, marketing and management to support leaders, teams, career advancers, students and families. Based in Los Angeles, she holds an master’s in counseling psychology, a bachelor’s in classical languages and Medieval and Renaissance studies from New York University, is a board certified coach, an MBTI Master Practitioner and a certified MMTIC practitioner.

Adam Rosenblum,
information architect

Adam Rosenblum is the Communications and Content Manager for the Berggruen Institute. He works directly with the Director of Communications on brand management, external communications, and graphic design. He is primarily responsible for taking care of the Berggruen website as well as working with teammates to help create graphics for their programs.

Adam brings close to two decades of experience working both in-house and agency experience in public relations, marketing and graphic design. His work experience includes  Ruder Finn, Allison & Partners, TBWA / Chiat / Day, O’Leary & Partners, and LA Law Library.

He earned his undergraduate degree in Communications from California State University, Long Beach, with an emphasis in public relations and a dual minor in marketing and sociology.  When not at work, he can be found working on various creative projects.

Jane Keller,
creative director

Jane Keller is the Creative Director of the Berggruen Institute. She is a veteran film editor, creative director and artist. Before joining the Berggruen Institute, she was the lead creative and editor at Los Angeles-based creative agency Happy United LLC, which she founded in 2015, and honed her editorial and creative talent at leading editorial houses and agencies in New York. Jane has delivered campaigns for clients such as American Express, Kodak, Match.com, Royal Caribbean and Bank of America, and projects for A&E, National Geographic, Lenny Kravitz and Barbara Kopple. Her work has aired on all major networks and reached tens of millions of viewers. Jane was nominated for the Best New Editor award by Boards Magazine who called her “one of the best new editorial talents in advertising for her unique blend of creative and technical talent.” She was co-chair and head of production of Mythic Bridge, a nonprofit that provided hands-on filmmaking education to at-risk youth, leading its Change The Script Campaign that raised awareness for LGBTQ youth and the Mythic Bridge LGBTQ Filmmaking Workshops. Jane holds a bachelor’s in art history and a bachelor of fine arts in art making from Tufts University.

The Advisory Board

The BGI is guided by a Board comprising experts in governance, indicator systems, and relevant subfields. Current members include Nabil Fahmy (American University, Cairo), Mohammed Ibrahim (Mo Ibrahim Foundation), Francis Fukuyama (Stanford), Margaret Levi (Stanford), John Micklethwait (Bloomberg), Gary Segura (UCLA Luskin), Anne-Marie Slaughter (New America), Michael Woolcock (World Bank), and Xue Lan (Tsinghua University).

About Berggruen Institute

The Berggruen Institute’s mission is to develop foundational ideas and shape political, economic, and social institutions for the 21st century. Providing critical analysis using an outwardly expansive and purposeful network, we bring together some of the best minds and most authoritative voices from across cultural and political boundaries to explore fundamental questions of our time. Our objective is enduring impact on the progress and direction of societies around the world. To date, projects inaugurated at the Berggruen Institute have helped develop a youth jobs plan for Europe, fostered a more open and constructive dialogue between Chinese leadership and the West, strengthened the ballot initiative process in California, and launched Noema, a new publication that brings thought leaders from around the world together to share ideas. In addition, the Berggruen Prize, a $1 million award, is conferred annually by an independent jury to a thinker whose ideas are shaping human self-understanding to advance humankind.