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Agustin Goenaga

Agustin Goenaga

Associate professor

Agustin Goenaga

The Lay of the Land: Information Capacity and the Modern State

Author

  • Thomas Brambor
  • Agustín Goenaga
  • Johannes Lindvall
  • Jan Teorell

Summary, in English

Relying on three new indicators of the information capacity of states, this paper provides new evidence on the ability of states to collect and process information about the territories and populations that they govern. The three indicators are (a) the availability of a reliable census, (b) the establishment of a permanent government agency tasked with processing statistical information about the territory and the population, and (c) the regular release of statistical yearbooks. We find, as expected, that there has been a secular increase in information capacity over time. We also investigate salient differences among countries from the early 1800s onward.

Department/s

  • Department of Political Science

Publishing year

2016-05

Language

English

Publication/Series

STANCE Working Paper Series

Volume

2016

Issue

2

Document type

Working paper

Publisher

Department of Political Science, Lund University

Topic

  • Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)

Keywords

  • state
  • Information capacity
  • census
  • census data
  • statistical analysis
  • territory
  • Population
  • government agency
  • statistical yearbook
  • 19th and 20th century

Status

Published

Project

  • State-Making and the Origins of Global Order in the Long Nineteenth Century and Beyond