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Political Economy: Statistics & Data

General Resources

Center for Systemic Peace (Polity IV). Sponsor of the Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (INSCR) which has data on armed conflict and interventions, political regime characteristics, armed conflict, state fragility,  and more. 

Cross National Time Series. Longitudinal nation-level data series spanning 200 years for over 200 countries covering demographic, social, political, and economic topics. This is a licensed resource that may only be used at UC Berkeley.

Sage Data. Access to data from local, state and international governments and organizations. Allows for customization of the data by selecting subjects, variable of interest, charts and maps.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Consortium of institutions working to acquire and preserve social science data. Maintained at University of Michigan.

PRS Group Country Data. Political risk data for countries from 1980 with data on bureaucracy, corruption, civil disorders, ethnic tensions, poverty, inflation, terrorism, etc.

World Economics and Politics Dataverse. Merges together 80+ of the most commonly used datasets in international political economy into a uniform format with consistent country codes. 

Conflict

Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.  Dates, actors, locations, and fatalities of reported political violence and protest events across regions of the world.

Center for Systemic Peace (Polity IV). Data on armed conflict and interventions, political regime characteristics, armed conflict, state fragility, etc. 

Correlates of War. Data on wars, non-state wars, and interstate disputes dating back to the 19th century. Associated measures include membership in international organizations, religion, alliances, colonial dependencies, diplomatic exchanges, and more

Cross National Time Series. Longitudinal nation-level data series spanning 200 years for over 200 countries covering demographic, social, political, and economic topics. This is a licensed resource that may only be used at UC Berkeley.

Global Terrorism Databases.  Information on terrorist events around the world from 1970. Includes data on domestic as well as international terrorist incidents.

International Military Intervention. Record of events involving “the movement of regular troops or forces (airborne, seaborne, shelling, etc) of one country inside another, in the context of some political issue or dispute.”

International Studies Compendium Project. Selection of data set on interstate and intrastate conflict data, peace-building, civil war, political repression and more.

Political Terror Scale. Codes countries on human-rights and the rule of law, based on reports from Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department.

PRS Group Country Data. Political risk data for countries from 1980 with data on bureaucracy, corruption, civil disorders, ethnic tensions, poverty, inflation, terrorism, etc.

RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents. Records terrorist incidents that occurred from 1968-2009.

SIPRI's (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). Data on security, peace operations, military expenditures, arms transfers, arms embargoes, and arms exports.

State Fragility Index and Matrix. Annual state fragility, effectiveness, and legitimacy indices and component indicators for countries with populations greater than 500,000.

World Economics and Politics Dataverse. Merges 80+ commonly used datasets in comparative and international political economy into a uniform country-year format with consistent country codes.

United Nations Peacekeeping Data. Troop and Police contributors by country, gender breakdowns, and fact sheets.

Democracy & Governance

Autocratic Regime Data. Provides a typology of autocratic regimes, their duration, and failure from 1946-2010. Also includes data coding democracies and non-autocracies. 

Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI)"Measures successes and setbacks on the path toward a democracy based on the rule of law and a socially responsible market economy."

Center for Systemic Peace (Polity IV). Data on armed conflict and interventions, political regime characteristics, armed conflict, state fragility, and more.

Comparative Constitutions Data. Investigates the sources and consequences of constitutional choices by collecting and analyzing data on the characteristics of constitutions for independent states since 1789.

Database of Political Institutions (DPI). Data on the political institutions and regime characteristics of countries from 1975.

Democratic Erosion Event Dataset (DEED). Identifies cases of potential democratic erosion and classifies events of democratic erosion and resistance to erosion.

Freedom in the World. Ranks each country in the world annually on how free it is in terms of political rights and civil liberties.

Nations, Development, and Democracy, 1800-2005. "Consists of a compiled database that assesses 187 (20 historical and 167 contemporary) sovereign countries from 1800-2005."

PRS Group Country Data. Political risk data for countries from 1980 with data on bureaucracy, corruption, civil disorders, ethnic tensions, poverty, inflation, terrorism, etc.

State Fragility Index and Matrix. Annual state fragility, effectiveness, and legitimacy indices and component indicators for countries with populations greater than 500,000.

Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). A collaboration among scholars worldwide drawing on 3000 Country Experts, V-Dem provides multiple indices of democracy grouped according to 7 high-level principles.

Worldwide Governance Indicators. Provides data on: Voice and Accountability; Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism; Government Effectiveness; Regulatory Quality, etc.

Elections

American Local Government Elections Database. "Database of about 78,000 candidates in 57,000 electoral contests that encompasses races for seven distinct local political offices in most medium and large cities and counties in the U.S. over the last three decades."

Dave Leap's Atlas of US Elections -- U.S. election data with data for presidential (1912 - present), and house elections (1992 - present).  Data include candidates, parties, popular and electoral vote totals, and more. County-level data available for many years.  The full-level files for the house have district level data 

Daily Kos Election Datasets. Presidential and selected state election returns (e.g., governor, senator, state attorneys general, etc.) broken down by congressional district, state legislative district, etc.

Global Elections Database. Provides information on the results of both national and subnational elections around the world. T

Harvard Election Data Archive. Presidential and Congressional elections by state, county, and precinct, various years between 2002–2012. Includes gubernatorial elections and some statewide offices. Geo-referenced to US Census Voting Tabulation Districts for comparison to Census data.

Historical Electoral County Level Data. Presidential and Congressional returns from 1840 to 1972 at the county level, via ICPSR.

OpenElections. Includes general, primary, and special elections to federal, gubernatorial, and state legislative office (by county and precinct, generally 2000–present). The project is still in process, but many states have data available, especially for recent general elections.

MIT Elections Data Lab.  Federal, state and county elections by state, county and precinct from 2016  and mid-terms for 2018.  

U.S. Historical Election Returns Datasets, 1788-1990. County-level electoral returns for all parties and candidates. Also includes congressional and gubernatorial elections.

U.S. House Primary Elections Results. Election returns from primaries for the US House of Representatives for 1956-2010. Includes district-specific variables, as well as data about candidate backgrounds and gender in recent years.

Votes in the UN General Assembly. UN General Assembly votes from 1946, via Eric Voeten, George Washington University.

Public Opinion

California Field Polls.  An independent, non-partisan, media-sponsored public opinion news service. Each year the poll covers a wide range of political and social topics examining California public opinion.

Global Barometers

International Social Surveys

Odum Archive Dataverse. A repository for all Louis Harris public opinion data and Roper Center nonproprietary poll data. A catalog of more than 2800 studies and series in its data holdings arranged by title, principal investigator, and subject.

Polling the Nations.  A compilation of public opinion polls and surveys from more than 6,500 national, state, local and special surveys in the U.S. and over 60 other countries. The surveys date from 1986 and contain information on over 3,000 social, political and economic issues

Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.  Domestic and international survey data. The Center's Public Opinion Location Library (iPOLL) gives online access to a database including poll questions asked in US from 1936 to present.

World Database of Happiness.  Research findings on subjective enjoyment of life that brings together findings scattered throughout many studies.

World Values Survey. National surveys conducted in almost 100 countries. Largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values.

Money and Finance

Cross National Time Series. Longitudinal nation-level data series spanning 200 years for over 200 countries covering demographic, social, political, and economic topics. This is a licensed resource that may only be used at UC Berkeley.

Sage Data. Access to data from local, state and international governments and organizations. Allows for customization of the data by selecting subjects, variable of interest, charts and maps.

Followthemoney.org. Provides free access to federal and state level campaign contributions. Data can also be accessed through an API.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Consortium of institutions working to acquire and preserve social science data. Maintained at University of Michigan.

LobbyView. Via MIT, allows tracking of lobby funds going back to the late 1990's for organizations, companies, cities, etc. Track by organization or bill number. Also provides access to lobbying disclosure forms.

OECD iLibrary. Publications and statistical data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including country studies, reports, and datasets.

PRS Group Country Data. Political risk data for countries from 1980 with data on bureaucracy, corruption, civil disorders, ethnic tensions, poverty, inflation, terrorism, etc.

Sunlight Foundation. Advocates for open government.  Provides many tools and an API for tracking money influencing Congress.

World Economics and Politics Dataverse. Merges together 80+ of the most commonly used datasets in comparative and international political economy (including several listed on this page) into a uniform country-year format with consistent country codes.