Abstract
This article presents new evidence on the efforts of states to collect and process information about themselves, their territories, and their populations. We compile data on five institutions and policies: the regular implementation of a reliable census, the regular release of statistical yearbooks, the introduction of civil and population registers, and the establishment of a government agency tasked with processing statistical information. Using item response theory methods, we generate an index of “information capacity” for 85 states from 1789 to the present. We then ask how political regime changes have influenced the development of information capacity over time. In contrast with the literature on democracy and fiscal capacity, we find that suffrage expansions are associated with higher information capacity, but increases in the level of political competition are not. These findings demonstrate the value of our new measure, because they suggest that different elements of state capacity are shaped by different historical processes.
Highlights
It is widely accepted among political scientists, economists, and sociologists that if we wish to explain enduring differences in economic and political development among countries—and within countries over time—we first need to understand how states attain the ability to carry out government policies effectively
Like Soifer, Hanson and Sigman (2013), distinguish between “extractive,” “coercive,” and “administrative” capacity, but unlike Soifer’s, Hanson and Sigman (2013)’s empirical strategy—which is more inductive—mixes outcome measures with survey-based measures of the efficiency and effectiveness of bureaucratic institutions
This figure combines some of the country-specific information in Figure 1 and Figure 2 in a single graph, showing when the first census ever was conducted in each country, when each country’s national statistical agency was introduced, and when a statistical yearbook was first released in each country
Summary
It is widely accepted among political scientists, economists, and sociologists that if we wish to explain enduring differences in economic and political development among countries—and within countries over time—we first need to understand how states attain the ability to carry out government policies effectively This ability, which is commonly referred to as “state capacity,” has been defined as “a government’s ability to make and enforce rules, and to deliver services” (Fukuyama 2013, 350), the “institutional capability of the state to carry out various policies” (Besley and Persson 2011, 6) and the “degree of control that state agents exercise over persons, activities, and resources within their government’s territorial jurisdiction” (McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 2001, 78). We analyze the empirical relationships between these three different components, and present evidence regarding the economic and political correlates of “information capacity” (Section 5)
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