R/data_documentation.R
democracy_info.RdThis data frame contains some basic info about all the democracy measures I know about.
democracy_infoAn object of class spec_tbl_df (inherits from tbl_df, tbl, data.frame) with 42 rows and 14 columns.
The basic name of the dataset. This usually matches the name
of the dataset included in this package, except for datasets with more than
one version (e.g., gwf matches gwf_all,
gwf_all_extended, gwf_autocratic, and
gwf_autocratic_extended).
Longer name of the dataset, or official name, if any.
The column or columns of the dataset containing a measure of democracy. There may be more than one; refer to the individual dataset documentation for details. If more than one measure, these are separated by commas.
The type of measure. It can be dichotomous (disintguishing only between democracy and non-democracy, with perhaps special codes for state interruptions or no-authority conditions), trichotomous (including a semidemocracy or hybrid category, but no other distinctions), ordinal (including several levels of democracy), or continuous.
Some measures of democracy modify or build on existing ones. Many are based on Polity data, for example. This column lists the basis for the measures of democracy in each datasets, as far as I know based on my reading of the sources. In some cases no relationship to other measures could be identified; this does not mean that no relationship exists. In other cases a measure may draw on more than one existing dataset. (For example, Wahman-Teorell-Hadenius use both Freedom House and Polity to help them identify democracies). An attempt to map these relationships more systematically is made in vignette("Relationships_between_democracy_measures").
Logical. Lists whether the measure is found in Pemstein, Meserve, and Melton's (2013) replication data for their 2010 article introducing the Unified Democracy Scores (Pemstein, Meserve, and Melton 2010). In some cases this is the only electronic source I have been able to identify for the included measure (e.g., arat_pmm). It's also worth noting that in a few cases (e.g., prc_gasiorowski, prc_pmm) there are some identifiable differences between the original data and the data in the replication dataset. See the vignette in this package for further discussion.
Whether the dataset contains information about categorical regime types - primarily forms of authoritarianism (e.g., monarchies and military regimes).
Whether the dataset is extendable in time by the user. Some datasets (e.g., gwf, ulfelder, bnr, magaloni) contain information about regime duration that can be used to extend their range back in time; others are latent variable indexes that can be extended using specific packages (e.g., uds, which can be extended using functions on this package, including generate_extended_uds; see vignette("Replicating_and_extending_the_UD_scores")). The "extended" versions of some datasets are included in this package.
Whether this package includes a function to download the dataset directly from the original source.
Whether the dataset is included in this package. Some are not, either due to use restrictions, or because they are updated with some frequency (e.g., fh).
Year of first published use (as far as I know). In some cases the data used in the first published use is very different from the current data; for example, as far as I know the Polity I data was first used in a 1975 study (though its compilation started in the late 1960s), but the current Polity 5 data is very different.
A link to where the data is (or was) originally hosted. Some of these links no longer work.
Licensing info, if available. I assume CC0 unless otherwise stated; some datasets have CC-BY-4.0 licenses.
Other notes. Evolving.
D. Pemstein, S. Meserve, and J. Melton. "Democratic Compromise: A Latent Variable Analysis of Ten Measures of Regime Type". In: Political Analysis 18.4 (2010), pp. 426-449. DOI: 10.1093/pan/mpq020.
D. Pemstein, S. A. Meserve, and J. Melton. Replication data for: Democratic Compromise: A Latent Variable Analysis of Ten Measures of Regime Type. 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/PMM.