Cross-National Measures of Political Democracy

这项研究将建立一个有价值的数据集， 各国政治民主的国家指标; 统计建模方法被认为是“最先进的”， 社会学，它将分析系统性偏见和 随机“噪音”存在于各种措施中，试图 隐藏系统性偏见的来源（例如，政治影响 国家，或者可能是它的大小），然后纠正原始数据 这种偏见。在更充分地衡量政治 这项工作所承诺的在不同国家的民主 将有利于对这一关系的理论研究 民主化与经济和社会不平等之间的关系， 经济增长和发展。同样的进步也会使 衡量标准和加强人权的实质内容 目前作为继续执行或 恢复对外援助和贸易关系。PI是一个 社会学家众所周知，他以前的贡献， 这一领域，并为他的统计和方法的技能， 要使用的方法。

This proposed research will construct a valuable data set of annual national indicators of political democracy across nations; and using statistical modeling methods considered 'state-of-the-art' in sociology, it will analyze the degree to which systematic bias and random 'noise' are present in the various measures, attempt to undercover the sources of systematic bias (e.g., political influence of the country, or perhaps its size) and then correct the original data for such bias. Advances toward a more adequate measurement of political democracy across very different nations that are promised by this work would benefit theoretically grounded studies of the relationship between democratization and economic and social inequality, as well as economic growth and development. The same advances would set important measurement standards and enhance the very substance of human rights determinations currently mandated as a condition of continuing or renewing both foreign aid and trade relationships. The PI is a sociologist well known both for his previous contributions to work in this area and for his statistical and methodological skills with the methods to be used.