Max Rånge and Mikael Sandberg Political Institutions and Regimes since 1600 : A

Political Institutions and Regimes since 1600: A New Historical Data Set Do national political institutions matter for social developments and changes? If so, how, where, and when do the critical conditions occur, and how long is the causal time lag? What are the patterns of interaction between political regime types and institutional changes from one country to another? These are some of the questions that historical data about such institutions can address. Given the different values that accrue at the national level, the information about the political systems under which these differences exist or emerge can help to explain variations or changes. For example, the co-evolution of political institutions with economic performance has long been of great interest among economists and political scientists. Do political institutions matter for economic growth, wealth, or economic inequality? Likewise, sociologists have studied trust and political culture in relation to political institutions. Political institutions can also be related to other forms of cultural evolution under various political regimes. Examining these issues requires historical data about political institutions among nations at several points in time. Depending on the design or, rather, as a consequence of designs made possible by long time series, we can estimate models of relationship between a set of focus variables and various political and historical institutions.