Methods

Regional Authority Index

How much authority regional governments hold, as self rule and shared rule, for 96 countries from 1950 to 2018.

Liesbet Hooghe, Gary Marks and colleagues · The publisher's page · All methods

What it looks at

Experts score countries · Coded from the law — What the law says

Coverage: 96 countries, 1950 to 2018 (version 3.1, 2021).

What it is made of

  • Self rule
  • Shared rule

May its data be shown here?

Needs permission

No licence is stated, so its figures need the authors' permission.

The publisher's terms, quotedPlease contact Liesbet Hooghe or Arjan Schakel with data queries.

Questions to ask of it

  • Who are the experts, how many score each country, and how far do they disagree? A score from a handful of people is an opinion with a number on it.
  • Is the scale written down, and would a second reader code the same text the same way?
  • Its figures cannot be shown here. Read them at the publisher's, and weigh them with the questions above.

Read these figures with help

The facts below are worked out by program from this page's figures, with no AI. The explanation, if you ask for one, is written by an AI from these facts only, and is checked against them before you see it.

The facts, in plain words

  1. F1Regional Authority Index, published by Liesbet Hooghe, Gary Marks and colleagues, says it measures: How much authority regional governments hold, as self rule and shared rule, for 96 countries from 1950 to 2018.
  2. F2How it is made: expert scoring, coded from law. What it looks at: de jure.
  3. F3Its parts, as the publisher names them: Self rule; Shared rule.
  4. F4Coverage: 96 countries, 1950 to 2018 (version 3.1, 2021).
  5. F5Licence: permission. The terms say: "Please contact Liesbet Hooghe or Arjan Schakel with data queries." No licence is stated, so its figures need the authors' permission.
  6. F6A question to ask of it: Who are the experts, how many score each country, and how far do they disagree?
  7. F7A question to ask of it: Is the scale written down, and would a second reader code the text the same way?
  8. F8A question to ask of it: Its figures cannot be shown on Solon.
  9. F9Source read on 2026-11-09: Gary Marks: Regional Authority Index.

Where this description comes from