This article presents new cross-country comparative evidence on the efforts of states to collect and process information about themselves, their territories, and their populations.
The authors compile data on five institutions and policies: the regular implementation of a reliable census, the regular release of statistical yearbooks, the introduction of civil and population registers, and the establishment of a government agency tasked with processing statistical information.
The authors then ask how political regime changes have influenced the development of information capacity since the French Revolution.