Collaborative Research: Colonialism and Its Legacies: A Comprehensive Historical Dataset

摘要“合作研究：殖民主义及其遗产：一个综合的历史数据集”（NSF提案0648292和0647921）首席研究员——约翰·格林和詹姆斯·马奥尼——殖民经历以深刻的方式塑造了现代时代，这已经成为一种普遍的观察。然而，尽管人们普遍认为“殖民主义很重要”，但这种创伤性干预的长期影响却不太清楚。学术和大众对殖民主义的看法的毒性与当前研究的不确定性相匹配。核心困难可以简单地说：学者们缺乏一个可靠的、全球性的数据集来检验假设。为了解决这些问题，本项目将开发一个全面的历史数据集，重点关注15世纪以来的盎格鲁-欧洲和日本海外殖民主义。使用国家-年份或国家-十年作为分析单位，主要调查人员将沿着与殖民经验和政治、社会和经济发展项目相关的各种维度对从1400年到现在的所有案例进行编码。为了监督数据收集过程，该项目将利用区域专家小组的各种专业知识：Paul Barclay、Neil Englehart、John Gerring、Charles Kurzman、James Mahoney和Nicolas van de Walle。在考虑这一项目的潜在影响时，重要的是要认识到，殖民占领构成了在治理和发展方面——在真正的全球范围内——的一次巨大试验。如此看来，它可能提供具有当代意义的有益经验。因此，学者们可能会将占领国优先发展教育和基础设施的殖民地与忽视这些因素的殖民地进行比较。这些发展政策有多成功？遇到了什么样的障碍？就这些政策成功实施的程度而言，它们是否产生了持久的影响？更一般地说，这个数据集有望激发不同领域的学者在社会科学领域采用不同的方法，对殖民主义的原因和影响进行研究。完成的研究将使学者、政策制定者和知情的公众更好地了解过去的当代遗产——包括积极和消极的方面。理解这一遗产，可能会为更现实地评估当前政策制定者的能力范围开辟道路。

Abstract"Collaborative Research: Colonialism and Its Legacies: A Comprehensive Historical Dataset"(NSF Proposals 0648292 and 0647921)Principal Investigators-- John Gerring and James Mahoney --It has become commonplace to observe that the colonial experience shaped the modern era in profound ways. Yet, while there is general agreement that "colonialism mattered," the long-term effects of this traumatic intervention are less clear. The virulence of scholarly and popular opinions about colonialism is matched by the inconclusiveness of the current research. The core difficulty can be stated succinctly: scholars lack a reliable, global dataset for testing hypotheses. As a remedy for these problems, this project will develop a comprehensive historical dataset focused on Anglo-European and Japanese overseas colonialism since the fifteenth century. Using the country-year or country-decade as the unit of analysis, the principal investigators will code all cases from 1400 to the present along a variety of dimensions related to the colonial experience and the project of political, social, and economic development. To supervise the data-gathering process, this project will utilize the diverse expertise of a panel of regional experts: Paul Barclay, Neil Englehart, John Gerring, Charles Kurzman, James Mahoney, and Nicolas van de Walle. In contemplating the potential impact of this project it is important to recognize that colonial occupation constituted a vast experiment -- on a truly global scale -- in governance and development. So viewed, it may provide useful lessons with contemporary relevance. Thus, scholars might compare colonies where the development of education and infrastructure constituted a priority for the occupying power with colonies where these factors were neglected. How successful were these developmental policies? What sorts of obstacles were encountered? To the extent that these policies were implemented successfully, did they have enduring effects? More generally, this dataset promises to stimulate research concerning the causes and effects of colonialism by scholars in diverse fields, equipped with a diverse set of methods, across the social sciences. The completed research will allow scholars, policymakers, and the informed public to better understand the contemporary legacies of this past -- including both the positive and negative aspects. Understanding this legacy may open the way for a more realistic assessment of what is within policymakers' power to achieve at the present time.