The Dissent Score: Using Events Data to Measure Dissent
Speaker: (opens in a new window)Carlisle Rainey (Florida State University)
Co-authors: Harley Roe, Qing Wang, and Nick Dietrich
Wednesday, March 6, 14:00–14:45 (Irish time)
Please register (opens in a new window)here to receive the link and password to the online meeting and information on the room at UCD.
Abstract: Researchers commonly use measures of dissent or protest in their analyses. Yet a standardized, public, ready-to-use measure does not exist. In this paper, we introduce such a measure—what we call the “dissent score.” To create the dissent score, we follow the standard practice in the literature and use the number of dissent events reported in events data sets. However, we make two improvements. First, we adjust for variation in media scrutiny by using the rate of dissent events—the number of dissent events compared to the total number of events reported in the data set. Second, we use a hierarchical model to partially pool these rates within and across countries to reduce measurement error in places with few events. We supply the country-year dissent score in an easy-to-use format, but also describe our method and supply the computer code so that researchers can extend our method, make adjustments, compute the dissent score for alternative place-times, or apply the idea to new concepts.
About the speaker: (opens in a new window)Carlisle Rainey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Florida State University. His research has appeared in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, Political Analysis, and other peer-reviewed journals. He teaches courses in American politics, comparative politics, and political methodology.