The Quality of Government Dataset, version 15May08

One aim of the QoG Institute is to make publicly available cross-national comparative data on QoG and its correlates. To accomplish this objective we have compiled both a cross-sectional dataset with global coverage pertaining to the year 2002 (or the closest year available), and a cross-sectional time-series dataset with global coverage spanning the time period 1946–2006. The datasets draw on a number of freely available crosssectional data sources, including aggregated individual-level data. In the cross-sectional dataset we include a total of 192 nations: all countries in the world recognized by the United Nations as of the year 2002, plus Taiwan. If data for 2002 was not available, data for 2003 is used. If 2003 was not available, we use data for 2001; and if 2001 was lacking, 2000 is used and so forth.In the cross-sectional time-series dataset we include the same 192 nations, plus an addition of 13 historical countries that have ceased to exist: Tibet, Zanzibar, Pakistan pre 1972 (including East Pakistan, presently Bangladesh), North and South Vietnam, North and South Yemen, East and West Germany, Yugoslavia pre 1992 (the People’s Republic of Yugoslavia), the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Ethiopia pre 1993 (including Eritrea); this makes a total of 205 nations