Elections and Overall Score
- Our next set of analyses for our third annual Aboriginal Governance Index looked at the relationship between the overall score and subcategory scores. This shows what subcategories are indicative of performance overall. In this area, the strongest statistical connection was between Elections and the overall score, at a score of .75.
- Bands that create the conditions for free and fair elections, and election dispute resolution processes, tend to have the highest scores overall. This observation seems to justify our decision to rank Elections as one of the highest weightings within our weighting scheme. Elections are fundamental to any equitable and representative governance structure. They provide legitimacy to the whole governing system and tend to produce better results in other areas. This lack of legitimacy at the highest and most fundamental level could prevent effective policy making in other subcategories.
- With all of the media reports over the last few years focusing on band election issues and with this evidence of strong correlation, it is reasonable to argue First Nations need to focus on improving their band election and dispute resolution mechanism processes, as this leads to higher overall scores.
Source: The Third Annual Aboriginal Governance Index. Available at www.fcpp.org
Read in PDF format here.
