Rebel Quasi-State Institutions Dataset
This dataset covers 235 domestic armed groups (rebels) involved in civil wars, coding for 25 institutions annually between 1945 and 2012. This dataset is unique in that it codes for all years in which the group exists as an armed competitor to the state, not just years where deaths occurred. As quasi-state institutions, they must reflect state institutions, which requires that they are provided to civilians, not exclusively to rebel fighters.
It covers an array of rebel political, economic and social institutions, including:
- Parallel governments (broken down further into local administration, government-in-exile, and "national" level parallel government)
- Elections
- Diplomatic Mission abroad
- Wrote their own Constitution
- Joined an International Organization
- Attempted to join an International Organization
- Issued Identification documents
- Border Patrol
- Political Party
- Media
- Currency
- Taxation
- Negotiate resource rights
- Sign an Economic Treaty
- Education/Schools
- Health care (hospitals, clinics, provide medicine)
- Law
- Policing
- Justice system (courts, prisons, etc.)
- Welfare/Aid
- Housing assistance
- Infrastructure
- Public Transportation
- Constituency politics
- Created their own "armed forces" (requires mechanization and professionalization of fighters)
The Rebel Quasi-State Institutions dataset also includes some control variables, including rebel income through illegal activity, and for territorial conflicts, whether the territory claimed corresponds to a sub-national administrative district in the state, and whether the territory claimed had autonomy. Both variables are coded on a yearly basis, and a separate variable to indicate if either was true prior the creation of the armed group.
Expected public release in 2020. Please contact me if you have further questions.
Contestation Dataset
This dataset covers 235 armed groups involved in civil war and codes for the presence of armed contestation every year after the first episode of violence ends. The goal of this dataset is to remove the death threshold requirement used to differentiate between "war" and "peace," and offer a more fine-grained picture of de-escalation over time. Contestation requires military activity by armed actors who are members of the same group that fought the government. It includes ambushes, fire fights, burning villages, bombings, road blocks, the movement, arming or training of fighters, and purchasing arms.
Groups in Europe/Eurasia, Asia, and the Americas are completed and groups in Africa and the Middle East are still in the process of being coded. I expect this data to be released by late 2020.
