Capturing Sub-National Variation in State Capacity: A Survey-Based Approach

Though there are many existing measures of state capacity, few capture its sub-national territorial variation in a reliable and valid way. This article proposes a novel, survey-based, measurement strategy for state capacity that is tailored to address this limitation of existing measures, and apply it to contemporary Latin America. We describe cross-national variation in state capacity based on data produced by our measure, engage in a series of validation exercises to show that it taps this concept rather than related elements of the political context, and map variation in sub-national stateness in Latin America. The article closes with an agenda for future research applying our measurement strategy to assess sub-national variation in stateness, in Latin America and beyond.

[1]  H. Soifer.  Measuring state CapaCity in ConteMporary Latin aMeriCa* Midiendo la capacidad estatal en la América Latina contemporánea , 2012 .

[2]  H. Soifer.  State building in Latin America , 2015 .

[3]  Mitchell Young,et al.  Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India. , 2006 .

[4]  C. Vang.  Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia , 2012 .

[5]  I. Harbers.  Taxation and the Unequal Reach of the State: Mapping State Capacity in Ecuador , 2015 .

[6]  Matthias vom Hau,et al.  Unpacking the Strength of the State: The Utility of State Infrastructural Power , 2008 .

[7]  A. Schrank,et al.  Growth and Governance: Models, Measures, and Mechanisms , 2007, The Journal of Politics.

[8]  Marcus J. Kurtz.  Latin American State Building in Comparative Perspective: Social Foundations of Institutional Order , 2013 .

[9]  Jonathan K. Hanson,et al.  Leviathan’s Latent Dimensions: Measuring State Capacity for Comparative Political Research , 2013, The Journal of Politics.

[10]  S. Kalyvas,et al.  The logic of violence in civil war , 2011 .

[11]  J. Luna.  State Capacity and Democratic Governance in Latin America: A Survey Data-Based Approach to Measurement and Assessment , 2014 .

[12]  G. O'donnell.  On the State, Democratization and Some Conceptual Problems: A Latin American View with Glances at Some Postcommunist Countries , 1993 .

[13]  H. Soifer.  State Power and the Economic Origins of Democracy , 2013 .

[14]  Yoshiko M. Herrera,et al.  Improving Data Quality: Actors, Incentives, and Capabilities , 2007, Political Analysis.

[15]  Stuart Robbins,et al.  THE GOVERNANCE , 2021, Research Handbook on Sports and Society.

[16]  D. Collier,et al.  Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research , 2001, American Political Science Review.

[17]  J. Fearon,et al.  Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War , 2003, American Political Science Review.

[18]  J. Herbst,et al.  States and Power in Africa , 2000 .

[19]  Agustina Giraudy.  CONCEPTUALIZING STATE STRENGTH: MOVING BEYOND STRONG AND WEAK STATES , 2012 .

[20]  D. Rueschemeyer.  Building States—Inherently a Long-Term Process? An Argument from Theory , 2005 .

[21]  Gwyneth H. McClendon.  Race and Responsiveness: An Experiment with South African Politicians , 2016 .

[22]  N. Zhang,et al.  Legibility and the Informational Foundations of State Capacity , 2017, The Journal of Politics.

[23]  Michael Mann,et al.  The autonomous power of the state: its origins, mechanisms and results , 1984 .

[24]  Erik Wibbels,et al.  The Geography of Governance in Africa: New Tools from Satellites, Surveys and Mapping Initiatives , 2014 .

[25]  H. Soifer.  State Infrastructural Power: Approaches to Conceptualization and Measurement , 2008 .

[26]  Francis Fukuyama,et al.  What Is Governance?: Commentary , 2013 .

[27]  Ryan Saylor.  Concepts, Measures, and Measuring Well , 2013 .

[28]  Rodrigo Garcia-Verdú,et al.  Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about It , 2013 .