Nations, Development, and Democracy, 1800-2005

To serve the scholarly community's growing interest in the process of democratization in the world over the past 200 years, this data collection consists of a compiled database that assesses 187 (20 historical and 167 contemporary) sovereign countries from 1800-2005. The database was constructed by merging variables derived from these existing datasets: (1) POLITY III: REGIME TYPE AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY 1800-1994 (Jagger and Gurr 1995) [ICPSR 6695], (2) CROSS-NATIONAL TIME SERIES, 1815-1973 (Banks 1993) [ICPSR 7412], (3) Polity IV (Jagger and Gurr 2005), (4) Political Freedom Indicators (Freedom House 2000), (5) World Development Indicators 1960-1998 (World Bank 1999), and (6) World Development Indicators 1960-2005 (World Bank 2006). In addition, missing variables were coded from the Statesman's Yearbook (2000), the World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators (Taylor and Jodice 1983), Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Relations (Osmanczyk 1982), and the journal, "Freedom Review," published by Freedom House. A sovereign country was defined as an independent member of the international system, which had a population greater than 500,000. In the database, for each sovereign country there are over 120 indicators, annually recorded, that represent: (1) the level of democratic growth, (2) the countries' development depicted by socioeconomic, demographic, and geographical characteristics, and (3) diffusion indicators. In addition, to add precision to the measurement, modifications of the core indicators were alsorecorded. The database is complimented by an index of variables.