Homework 1
Overview
For this assignment, you are going to evaluate modernization theory as laid out in Seymour Martin Lipset’s classic article entitled “Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy.” How classic is this article? According to Google Scholar, this piece has been cited more than 11.5 thousand times!
We are going to use data from V-Dem and modern data viz tools to explore Lipset’s hypothesis that economic modernization is highly correlated with democracy. We have already done this to some extent by looking at the relationship between wealth and the polyarchy score. But we are going to broaden things out by looking at other measures of modernization and democracy contained in the V-Dem dataset.
Before starting on this assignment, you will want to have a look at the V-Dem codebook. Look through the sections titled “V-Dem Democracy Indices” (section 2 of the codebook) and “Background Factors (E).” There are five democracy indicators, one of which is the polyarchy index. There are a number of background factors, many of which pertain to economic modernization. We are going to be looking at the relationship between these two sets of variables. In the code book, you will also find a list of country names and codes, which will be useful for downloading and filtering the data.
Now have a look at “Some Social Requisites of Democracy” and in particular pay attention to the indicators in Table II and the discussion surrounding them. Think of each indicator (e.g. urbanization, education, etc.) as a sub-hypothesis of his theory. Which of these sub-hypotheses about modernization do you think is most compelling? Which would you like to test?
Finally, go ahead and download the Homework 1 assignment from the IAFF 6501 classwork folder.
Step 1: Gather your data (20 pts)
Insert a code chunk below this paragraph and label it. Use the vdemdata package to download data for your analysis. Since we already looked at the polyarchy score and wealth in class, you need to use a different measure of democracy and a different background factor for your analysis. Use a select() verb to include country, year, region (e_regionpol_6C), at least one of the other four measures of democracy, and one background factor that is not per capita GDP. Store your data in an object called dem_data. Pipe in a mutate() verb and use case_match() to label the regions. Review module 3.1 if you are confused on how to do this.
Step 2: Make a line chart showing country trends (20 pts)
a) Insert a code chunk below this paragraph and label it. Filter your dem_data to include three or four countries at various levels of economic development and create a line chart of your democracy indicator. See the World Bank country classifications by income level to make your selections. Save the data as a new data frame called dem_data_line.
Note: From here on out I will expect you to know to add a code chunk and label it. So I won’t keep repeating that portion of the instructions.
b) Make a line chart using ggplot2. Be sure to specify x =, y = and color = in your aes() call and use geom_line() to create the chart. Add a colorblind-friendly color map using viridis. Now add appropriate axis labels, a title and a caption.
c) In a few sentences, interpret your chart. Have the more developed countries achieved a higher level of democracy? Put your answer right below this line in markdown text.
Step 3: Make a bar chart comparing regional levels (20 pts)
a) Going back to your original dem_data data frame, filter the data for a single year and then group by region and summarize your democracy indicator by mean. Save the new data in an object called bar_chart_data.
b) Use ggplot() and geom_col() to create a bar chart showing levels of democracy across the regions with bar_chart_data. Make sure to add appropriate axis labels, a title and a caption. Change the fill color and add a theme to spruce it up a bit.
c) Interpret your bar chart. Do you see evidence that more developed regions have higher levels of democracy?
Step 4: Make a scatter plot to show (20 pts)
a) Start with the dem_data data frame again, Now filter by year to select either a single year or take an average of multiple years using group_by() and summarize() to analyze. If you choose a recent period, make sure that the data are available. Some of the background variables in V-Dem are not entirely up to date. You can check the availability of the data by looking at the V-Dem codebook or using glimpse() or View() to look at your data. Save your your data in a new object called dem_data_scatter.
b) Now build a scatter plot with ggplot2. Put your modernization-related variable (background variable) on the x-axis and your measure of democracy on the y-axis and color the points by region. Add a trend line with geom_smooth(). Add appropriate labels and a viridis color map. Change the theme to theme_minimal.
Step 5: Conclusion (20 pts)
Render your document and write a brief conclusion to your analysis. What did you find? Did you find support for Lipset’s theory? What are the limitations of your analysis?
Step 6: Bonus questions (one point each)
a) Facet wrap your scatter plot by region.
b) Remove the facet_wrap() call and display the relationship for one region and use geom_text() to label your points.
c) Remove the text labels and make your scatter plot interactive using ggplotly(). Make sure that your tooltip includes the information that you want to display to the user.
d) Add annotation to your plot using hline() or vline() to highlight a significant point in your data, like the mean or some other significant value.
e) Upload your rendered HTML file to Quarto Pub and share the link with the class on Discord.
Head over to Blackboard and go to the Homework 1 assignment. There you will find a that you can lose to upload your project folder. Take a screen shot of the confirmation message (“Finished Uploading”) and store it on your computer.
Next, click “Create Sumbission” and write a statement saying that you have submitted the assignment and that all of the work is your own. If you have uploaded your document to Quarto Pub, then you can include the link to that as well.
Then, upload the screenshot you saved in the first step. Now submit the assignment.