Final project data
Your final project uses two datasets. Both are in the data/ folder of the final project .zip file, and the template loads them with some starter code:
vdem: One row for each of the 179 countries in V-Dem in 2023. Most V-Dem measures are based on surveys of country experts, so this is what experts say about each country.barometer: One row for each of the 15,627 people interviewed in Wave VIII (2023–2024) of the Arab Barometer in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia. This is what residents say about their own countries.
The Arab Barometer interviewed people from September 2023 to July 2024, so the V-Dem data comes from 2023.
Themes
Pick one theme. Each theme has variables at both levels. You don’t have to use every variable in your theme, and you can use variables from other themes as controls.
| Data | Variable | Description |
|---|---|---|
| V-Dem | polyarchy, polyarchy_10 |
Electoral democracy index: how much a country has free and fair elections, freedom of expression and association, and elected officials (0–1 or 0–10; higher = more democratic) |
| V-Dem | polyarchy_low, polyarchy_high |
Range of uncertainty around V-Dem’s estimate of polyarchy (0–1) |
| V-Dem | libdem, libdem_10 |
Liberal democracy index: electoral democracy plus limits on the executive, rule of law, and civil liberties (0–1 or 0–10; higher = more democratic) |
| V-Dem | libdem_low, libdem_high |
Range of uncertainty around V-Dem’s estimate of libdem (0–1) |
| V-Dem | regime |
Regimes of the World category: “Closed autocracy”, “Electoral autocracy”, “Electoral democracy”, or “Liberal democracy” |
| Arab Barometer | democracy_rating |
“To what extent is [your country] democratic?” (0–10; 0 = not at all, 10 = completely democratic) |
| Arab Barometer | democracy_appropriate |
“What is an appropriate level of democracy for your country?” (0–10) Not asked in Kuwait |
| Arab Barometer | democracy_best |
“Democratic systems may have problems, yet they are better than other systems” (Strongly agree → Strongly disagree) Split sample |
| Arab Barometer | democracy_weak_economy |
“Under a democratic system, the country’s economic performance is weak” (Strongly agree → Strongly disagree) Split sample |
| Data | Variable | Description |
|---|---|---|
| V-Dem | corruption, corruption_10 |
Political corruption index: how much the executive, legislature, judiciary, and public sector are corrupt (0–1 or 0–10; higher = more corrupt) |
| V-Dem | exec_corruption, exec_corruption_10 |
Executive corruption index (higher = more corrupt) |
| V-Dem | public_corruption, public_corruption_10 |
Public sector corruption index (higher = more corrupt) |
| Arab Barometer | corruption_national |
“To what extent is there corruption within the national state agencies and institutions in your country?” (To a large extent → Not at all) |
| Arab Barometer | corruption_local |
“How widespread do you think corruption is in local government?” (Hardly anyone → Almost everyone) Split sample; not asked in Kuwait |
| Arab Barometer | gov_fights_corruption |
“To what extent is the national government working to crack down on corruption?” (To a large extent → Not at all) |
| Data | Variable | Description |
|---|---|---|
| V-Dem | free_expression, free_expression_10 |
Freedom of expression and alternative sources of information index (higher = more free) |
| V-Dem | civil_liberties, civil_liberties_10 |
Civil liberties index (higher = more free) |
| V-Dem | physical_integrity, physical_integrity_10 |
Physical violence index: freedom from torture and political killings (higher = more free) |
| V-Dem | rule_of_law, rule_of_law_10 |
Equality before the law and individual liberty index (higher = more equal) |
| Arab Barometer | free_expression |
“To what extent is the freedom to express opinions guaranteed?” (To a great extent → Not guaranteed at all) |
| Arab Barometer | free_media_criticism |
“…freedom of the media to criticize the things government does” (same answers) Split sample |
| Arab Barometer | free_press |
“…freedom of the press” (same answers) Split sample; asked to the other half from free_media_criticism |
| Arab Barometer | free_protest |
“…freedom to participate in peaceful protests and demonstrations” (same answers) Not asked in Kuwait |
| Data | Variable | Description |
|---|---|---|
| V-Dem | women_empowerment, women_empowerment_10 |
Women political empowerment index (higher = more empowered) |
| V-Dem | women_legislators |
Percent of the lower chamber of the legislature who are women |
| Arab Barometer | men_better_leaders |
“In general, men are better at political leadership than women” (Strongly agree → Strongly disagree) |
| Arab Barometer | equal_work |
“Men and women should have equal work opportunities” (Strongly agree → Strongly disagree) |
| Arab Barometer | women_seat_quota |
“There should be a minimum number of seats in parliament reserved for women” (Strongly agree → Strongly disagree) Split sample |
| Data | Variable | Description |
|---|---|---|
| V-Dem | free_fair_elections, free_fair_elections_10 |
Clean elections index (higher = more free and fair) |
| V-Dem | turnout |
Percent of registered voters who voted in the most recent national election between 2018 and 2023 (missing if there wasn’t one) |
| V-Dem | turnout_year |
Year of the election in turnout |
| Arab Barometer | voted |
“Did you vote in the last parliamentary elections?” (Yes or No) Not asked in Palestine |
| Arab Barometer | election_quality |
“How would you evaluate the last parliamentary elections?” (Free and fair; Free, fair, minor problems; Not free or fair) Not asked in Kuwait or Palestine |
| Arab Barometer | genuine_choice |
“How often are voters offered a genuine choice in elections?” (Frequently → Never) Not asked in Kuwait or Palestine |
| Arab Barometer | protested |
“Have you participated in an in-person protest, demonstration, strike, or boycott?” (Yes or No) Split sample |
| Data | Variable | Description |
|---|---|---|
| V-Dem | military_dimension, military_dimension_10 |
Military dimension index: how much the military decides who becomes and stays head of government (higher = more military power) |
| Arab Barometer | trust_army |
“How much trust do you have in the army?” (A great deal of trust → No trust at all) Not asked in Kuwait |
| Arab Barometer | trust_government |
“How much trust do you have in the government (Council of Ministers)?” (same answers) Not asked in Kuwait |
| Arab Barometer | gov_performance |
“How satisfied are you with the government’s performance overall?” (Completely satisfied → Completely dissatisfied) |
The data also has a few civil society variables (civil_society, cso_repression, cso_entry_exit, trust_cso, volunteer, donate, and signed_petition). Those are for the example project, so you can’t use civil society as your theme, but you can use them as controls.
Variables you can use with any theme
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
country_name |
Country name (Palestine is split into "Palestine/West Bank" and "Palestine/Gaza") |
country_id |
V-Dem’s ID number for the country |
continent, region |
Continent and World Bank region |
in_barometer |
TRUE if the country is in the Arab Barometer (including both the West Bank and Gaza) |
regime_num, regime |
Regime type, as a number (0–3) and as a category |
gdpPercap |
GDP per capita (PPP, constant 2021 international dollars), from the World Bank. The West Bank’s number is for all of Palestine, and Gaza is missing. |
population |
Population, from the World Bank |
life_exp |
Life expectancy at birth |
fertility_rate |
Births per woman |
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
id |
Respondent ID number |
country |
Country where the person was interviewed |
weight |
Survey weight (see below) |
urban_rural |
Urban, Rural, or Camp Not asked in Kuwait |
age |
Age, in years |
gender |
Male or Female |
education |
Highest level of education (No formal education → MA and above) |
income_covers_expenses |
Whether household income covers expenses (Yes- able to save → No- face significant difficulties) |
employment |
Employment status |
religious |
Religious, Somewhat religious, or Not religious Not asked in Kuwait |
economy |
“How would you evaluate the current economic situation in [your country]?” (Very good → Very bad) |
Things to watch out for
Most Arab Barometer questions are factors whose first category is the strongest answer (“Strongly agree”, “A great deal of trust”, “To a large extent”). If you turn them into numbers with as.numeric(), 1 will mean the most agreement or trust and 4 will mean the least, which is backwards from what you’d probably expect. It’s often easier to collapse answers into two groups (e.g., agree vs. disagree) and work with the percent of people who agree.
To keep the survey from getting too long, the Arab Barometer asked some questions to a random half of the people in each country. These are marked “split sample” above. About 50% of these answers are missing on purpose, so you’ll have about half the usual sample size.
Kuwait didn’t ask several questions, and Palestine didn’t ask about voting (there hasn’t been a national election there since 2006). These are marked above. If your theme’s main question wasn’t asked in a country, pick a different country for your within-country analysis.
People who said “Don’t know” or refused to answer are coded as missing (NA). Mention how many people this affects in your Data section.
The Arab Barometer uses random sampling, but some kinds of people still end up a little over- or under-represented. The weight column fixes this by counting some people a little more and some a little less. Real analyses of this survey should use the weights, but you don’t need to use them in this project. (That means your numbers won’t exactly match the official Arab Barometer reports.)
The Arab Barometer interviewed about 790 people in the West Bank and about 400 in Gaza, from September 28 to October 8, 2023. In the barometer data, they’re all in country == "Palestine". V-Dem treats the West Bank and Gaza as two separate countries ("Palestine/West Bank" and "Palestine/Gaza").