State capacity

Instructions

  • For the data, right-click, “save/download file as…”
  • Open the data
  • Complete all of the tasks associated with that data and keep track of your answers / images
  • Once you are done, go on Canvas and answer the questions related to the assignment
    • the Canvas assignment is timed; if you open it prior to completing the tasks you will run out of time

Skills used:

  • Sorting/filtering
  • plotting
  • Constructing new variables

My awkward Google Sheets video tutorials are here

Control of territory

Let’s look at data from the Varieties of Democracy on their variable v2svstterr, which measures the percent of the territory that a state has effective control of.

  1. Let’s look at how much territorial control has changed since the end of WW2 (1945). Calculate the percent change in territorial control between 2022 and 1945 (remember: \(\%_{change} = \frac{(control_{2022} - control_{1945})}{ control_{1945}} \times 100\)). How MANY countries had their territorial control score decrease by more than 3%? (1 point)
  1. Make a plot of territorial control (y-axis) over time (x-axis), with a separate line for each country. Save the plot for submission. (1 point)

  1. Which country experienced the sharpest, most sudden drop in territorial control in the post-WW2 period? What happened in this country in that year? Explain, and include a link or reference for your claim. ~200 words. (3 points)

  2. Nicaragua and Colombia have had a dispute over the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina. At some points, Nicaragua has stated that they legally consider the islands to be their territory, but Colombia has maintained de facto rule for almost 100 years. Imagine a rebellion broke out on the islands; would this hurt Nicaragua’s VDEM territorial control score, or not? Why? Look up how VDEM codes this variable in their codebook to justify your answer (3 points for explanation).

Offshore wealth

A big challenge for states is that (wealthy) residents and businesses may “hide” their wealth abroad to avoid taxation. Let’s look at data from the European Union Tax Observatory on offshore financial wealth.

  1. What is “offshore financial wealth”? Roughly speaking, how did the Observatory measure it? Where is the data coming from? Look up the codebook. 2 points.

  2. Which country in Latin America & Caribbean had the highest total offshore wealth in 2005? Which had the highest offshore wealth in 2022? (2 point)

  1. Come up with a thoughtful question someone could answer with this data. Describe your question, what you did with the data to answer it, and what the answer is. Roughly 100 words. (2 points)