The quantification of problems that actors decide to understand and fix has become central to policy-making. However, this article suggests that critics of this move miss the point if their critique is limited to inadequate methods or inaccurate results. Dialoguing with recent literature on governance by numbers, the article argues that errors are not the issue. Taking development policy-making as an illustration, the article suggests that numbers in policy are increasingly imbued with a reasoning according to which it is only necessary to find “enough” correlation. By looking at “good enough data/methods/governance” in the World Bank and OECD in the context of the “fragile states” agenda, the aim is to show how imperfect methods and objects become authoritative while their imperfection is anything but hidden. As the pursuit of better numbers moves the wheel, the article suggests the need to learn more about authority and power in these dynamics by looking at how errors are a practical, accepted, and ubiquitous element in donors’ practices.

中文翻译：

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通过反复试验发展：足够多的权威

参与者决定理解并解决的问题的量化已成为决策的中心。但是，本文建议，如果批评家仅限于方法不足或结果不正确，批评者会忽略这一点。通过与有关数字治理的最新文献进行对话，文章认为错误不是问题。以发展政策制定为例，该文章建议政策中的数字越来越多地带有一种推理，根据这种推理，只需要找到“足够的”相关性即可。通过在“脆弱国家”议程的背景下查看世界银行和经合组织中的“足够好的数据/方法/治理”，其目的是表明不完美的方法和对象如何变得权威，而不完美的方法和对象几乎是隐藏的。