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I  Introduction: This report is descriptive in nature.  We present means, frequencies, correlations, and distribution frequencies of the many variables.  Each chapter focuses on one area (demographic, social, economic, political, technical), and the final chapter presents an integration of these areas.

II Data

Data variables:  This study includes a wide variety of variables, including demographics (e.g., population, urbanization, infant mortality), social (education, crime), economics (e.g., gdp, share of income, trade, economic freedom), political (e.g., political freedom, corruption, terrorism), and technological infrastructure.  Each of the variables will be briefly defined in their respective chapters, with, as mentioned, links to the primary sources.

Data sources:  All of the data used in this study are freely available on the web.  The sources will be listed below each table, with links, and in the appendix. Generally, data sets are used when they have:

 • data for at least 50 countries, generally 90 countries or more.
 • data which covers time periods of at least 10 years, generally 20 years or more.

In addition, although all data are available for free on the web, we have obtained permission from owners of the data sets for use in this report.  We also obtained permission from many of the owners to include their data in our combined data set that is available for downloading.  Any of the data included in our downloadable data set may be freely downloaded and used by any researcher, without need for further permission.

Data issues:

1. Time periods available:

In general, this report uses data sets that cover at least 20 years. One issue, though, is that different data sets cover different time periods.  In some cases there are minor differences.  For example, some data sets might cover 1975-1995 while others cover 1970-1999.  In other cases there are larger differences, e.g., data sets beginning with 1950 versus 1970.  In general, though, we are looking for a consistent whole, so that different time periods are less important than that patterns tend to fit together.  That is, we will look for patterns that, over time, are consistent.  Also, there are enough different data sets so that while one particular data set may be very different than another, most should cover time periods that are similar to several other data sets.

2. Different countries:

Another difficulty is that different data sets have data for different sets of countries, thus there is some problem with lack of overlap.  However, we generally use data sets which have data for 90 or more countries or states.  Thus, while all the different sets don't have exactly the same countries, in most they have many or most of the same countries.  There is enough similarity in the different sets of countries for general comparisons.  That is, we feel that the results are reliable enough for general comparisons and trend descriptions.

3. Use of ratings, percentages, rates:

In many analyses of the rates, ratings and percentages used in this study, there is often an assumption that all countries are equal in weight.  Clearly, though, Mainland China is different from a small country.  That is, the level of economic freedom of over 1 billion people in China contributes more to a 'world' total than does the level of economic freedom of 1 or 2 million people in a small country.  One way to deal with this is to present results for all countries, and in addition, for countries grouped by size.  That is, we will also group the countries into largest third, middle third and smallest third, and then describe relationships within the groupings.

4. Comparability of data:

We use data from many different sources, and thus, data were derived using different methods, and there may be varying levels of reliability, validity, or different meaning in different data sets.  However, as mentioned, we are looking for a consistent whole.  That is, we are looking to see whether different data .... something ..... to be added.
 

III. Analysis:

Generally, descriptive methods are used.  We present world and regional totals and averages for various time periods.  For some data, totals or averages cannot be calculated due to the use of rates, percents or ratings.  For those data, we present ranges and graphical distributions.  Comparisons are made from these ranges and distributions.  (Think further on this...)

In the final chapter, we will explore the relationship among variables in different chapters, generally through correlation analysis.  For example, we will look at whether and how infant mortality rates may be related to political or economic freedom.  Similarly, we will explore other relationships.
 

IV. Quantitative vs qualitative

As mentioned, this report examines quantitative aspects of social change.  But change is led by people, who have their own stories, motives, beliefs and reasons.  Our report does not in any way deny the critical importance or primacy of people as agents of change.  This report merely presents data and some analyses, because, in part, so much data is available and easier to analyze. Thus, this report may be viewed as presenting the background in which individuals work.

For some sources of on line history, see   http://gsociology.icaap.org/history.htm

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last modified 3/21/02