Data Sources
Conditions for Change
For each set of conditions—demographic, economic, political, and geographic—we assembled a dataset with indicators measuring economic and racial equity, as these are key outcomes of progressive governance. Since we are trying to identify where states are on the pathways toward progressive governance, we look mostly at change—specifically the diversity, complexity, and pace of change. We emphasize that the metrics we chose are examples; users of the framework will ultimately choose which metrics to consider under each condition depending on the application.
To develop our database, we started with a data portal we at USC PERE co-created with PolicyLink called the National Equity Atlas, which provides further information and regional-level data on many of the indicators utilized in the demographic and economic conditions. Building off of this, we drew upon additional sources that helped us measure change in states, demographically, economically, and politically.
Much of our analysis is based on a unique dataset created using microdata samples (i.e. "individual-level" data) from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), for four points in time: 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2009 through 2013 "pooled" together. While the 1980 through 2000 files are based on the decennial census and cover about 5 percent of the U.S. population each, the 2009 through 2013 files are from the American Community Survey (ACS) and cover only about 1 percent of the U.S. population each. Five years of ACS data were pooled together to improve the statistical reliability and to achieve a sample size that is comparable to that available in previous years. Survey weights were adjusted as necessary to produce estimates that represent an average over the 2009 through 2013 period.
Compared with the more commonly used census "summary files," which includes limited summary data on population, housing, economic and other characteristics, use of the microdata samples allows for deeper analysis of racial, and inter-generational equity and inclusion. Because these metrics are based on samples, they are subject to a margin of error and should be regarded as estimates—particularly in smaller regions and for smaller demographic subgroups. That said, most of the metrics we report are based on relatively large sample sizes, and all of them all of them are based on a universe of at least 100 individual survey respondents (if not more).
Here is a table that lists sources and datasets underlying the analysis presented on the Changing States website and reports:
Arenas of Change
Electoral Arena
- State Felon Disenfranchisement Rates
- Average Voting Wait Time (2012)
- Absentee or Mail Voting
- Early Voting
- Voter ID Laws
- Ballot Initiative Statutes
- Popular Referendum Process
- Ballot Initiatives - State Constitution.
- Gerrymandering Index
- State Redistricting Process
- Public Campaign Financing
- Campaign Contribution Limits
Legislative Arena
- Full & Part Time Legislative Index
- Average length of legislative session (months per year)
- Squire Index of State Legislative Professionalism (2003 Mean Score)
- State Lobbying Disclosure Ranking
- Legislative Accountability Score (Center for Public Integrity State Integrity Data)
- Political Equality Index (Income & ideological distance)
- Existence of local, state participatory budgeting
Judicial Arena
- Judicial Selection Methods
- Judicial Accountability Score (Center for Public Integrity State Integrity Data)
- Judiciary Election Spending Rank (For Total Spending)
- Judicial Election Public Financing
- Percentage of State Budget Spent on Incarceration (Ranked)
- State Racial/Ethnic Disparity in Incarceration (Black:White Ratio)
- Justice Index (Attorney, Language, Disability, Self-Rep Access)
- Campaign Contribution Limits
- Judicial Diversity Index
Electoral Arena
State Felon Disenfranchisement Rates Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Sentencing Project (Uggen, Shannon and Manza 2012). See report for full methodology.
Average Voting Wait Time (2012) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Stewart and Ansolabehere (2012) white paper. Per report, larger wait time reduces democratic participation.
Absentee or Mail Voting Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures (NSCL) website, retrieved February 2016. No indication of last data update, but cross-check of data shows it is regularly updated with latest state laws and procedures.
Early Voting Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures (NSCL) website, retrieved February 2016. No indication of last data update, but cross-check of data shows it is regularly updated with latest state laws and procedures.
Voter ID Laws Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures (NSCL) website, retrieved February 2016. No indication of last data update, but cross-check of data shows it is regularly updated with latest state laws and procedures.
Ballot Initiative Statutes Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures (NSCL) website, retrieved February 2016. No indication of last data update, but cross-check of data shows it is regularly updated with latest state laws and procedures.
Popular Referendum Process Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures (NSCL) website, retrieved February 2016. No indication of last data update, but cross-check of data shows it is regularly updated with latest state laws and procedures.
Ballot Initiatives - State Constitution. Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures (NSCL) website, retrieved February 2016. No indication of last data update, but cross-check of data shows it is regularly updated with latest state laws and procedures.
Gerrymandering Index Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Avazea (2012). See report for full methodology. Higher value indicates more districts that are less compact/more irregularly shaped, and thus more gerrymandering.
State Redistricting Process Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Ballotpedia website, regularly updated with any changes in law, retrieved February 2016
Public Campaign Financing Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures website, updated for 2015-2016 election cycle.
Campaign Contribution Limits Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures website, updated for 2015-2016 election cycle.
Legislative Arena
Full & Part Time Legislative Index Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures (NSCL) website, retrieved February 2016. No indication of last data update, but cross-check of data shows it is regularly updated with latest state laws and procedures.
Average length of legislative session (months per year) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from The Council of State Governments Book of the States, 2013 and reproduced by the Pew Research Center for Journalism & Media. Several states have 2-year legislative cycles, so data collects average from 2012-2013.
Squire Index of State Legislative Professionalism (2003 Mean Score) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Squire (2007). For more on calculations of measure, see journal article.
State Lobbying Disclosure Ranking Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Sunlight Foundation, appears to be updated as recently as 2015. Retrieved February 2016. Each of the 5 separate data points on lobbying regulation has their own set of categorical variables, but are aggregated; no one has a greater score than 5.
Legislative Accountability Score (Center for Public Integrity State Integrity Data) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Center for Public Integrity, updated in 2015. Experienced journalists graded each state government using 245 specific measures, or “indicators,” which involved both documenting existing laws or regulations and/or assessing adherence to these laws and practices. Each state received a report card with letter grades in 13 categories, including access to information, political finance, electoral oversight, executive accountability, legislative accountability, judicial accountability, state budget processes, civil service oversight, internal auditing, procurement, ethics oversight, lobbying regulations, and management of state pension funds.
Political Equality Index (Income & ideological distance) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Flavin (2014). Respondents are state's voters. Per Flavin (2014), as a respondent's income increases, the distance between their individual interests and state policy decreases and they are better represented.The lower a respondent's income, the greater the distance between opinion and policy and the worse that respondent's general political ideology is represented in the general liberalism of his or her state's public policies.
Existence of local, state participatory budgeting Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Participatory Budgeting Project, no date. Retrieved February 2016.
Judicial Arena
Judicial Selection Methods Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Center for State Courts, updated regularly. Pulled 2016.
Source Link: http://www.judicialselection.us/judicial_selection/methods/selection_of_judges.cfm?state
Judicial Accountability Score (Center for Public Integrity State Integrity Data) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Center for Public Integrity, updated in 2015. Experienced journalists graded each state government using 245 specific measures, or “indicators,” which involved both documenting existing laws or regulations and/or assessing adherence to these laws and practices. Each state received a report card with letter grades in 13 categories, including access to information, political finance, electoral oversight, executive accountability, legislative accountability, judicial accountability, state budget processes, civil service oversight, internal auditing, procurement, ethics oversight, lobbying regulations, and management of state pension funds.
Judiciary Election Spending Rank (For Total Spending) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Justice At Stake, regularly updated and retrieved February 2016. Only 2 states now have public financing for judicial elections.
Judicial Election Public Financing Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Brennan Center for Justice, New Politics of Judicial Elections. Database updated 2013-2014 with 2014 election data.
Percentage of State Budget Spent on Incarceration (Ranked) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Knoema.com, which utilized National Association of State Budget Officers 2013-4 budget data and ranked comparatively. Higher spending can indicate greater focus on punitive approaches to justice.
State Racial/Ethnic Disparity in Incarceration (Black:White Ratio) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from The Sentencing Project, which gathered data from Bureau of Justice Statistics state and other data. Data updated regularly, retrieved 2016. Higher ratios indicate greater racial disparities in sentencing.
Justice Index (Attorney, Language, Disability, Self-Rep Access) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data compiled by National Center for Access to Justice, Cardozo Law School. Research compiled in 2014, though the center is currently producing data updates to be released.
Judicial Diversity Index Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from the ABA Standing Committee on Judicial Independence, which studied state judicial diversity as it relates to race/ethnicity, gender, methods of selection variables, and state population variable. The SCJI's comprehensive measure of judicial diversity according to racial identification includes state courts of last resort, appellate level courts, and trial courts of general jurisdiction. SCJI modernized the site in 2007, and last updated the judicial data in June 2010.
Administrative Arena
Expenditures as Percentage of General Fund Expenditures Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Kasier Family Foundation, published 2015. Online data is updated annually with new SFY budget data releases.
Source Link: Source Link
State Ethics Commission with Local, Nonelected Officials Oversight Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from National Council of State Legislatures (NSCL) website, retrieved February 2016. No indication of last data update, but cross-check of data shows it is regularly updated with latest state laws and procedures.
State Civil Service Management Integrity Score Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Center for Public Integrity, updated in 2015. Experienced journalists graded each state government using 245 specific measures, or “indicators,” which involved both documenting existing laws or regulations and/or assessing adherence to these laws and practices. Each state received a report card with letter grades in 13 categories, including access to information, political finance, electoral oversight, executive accountability, legislative accountability, judicial accountability, state budget processes, civil service oversight, internal auditing, procurement, ethics oversight, lobbying regulations, and management of state pension funds.
Executive Accountability Score Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Center for Public Integrity, updated in 2015. Experienced journalists graded each state government using 245 specific measures, or “indicators,” which involved both documenting existing laws or regulations and/or assessing adherence to these laws and practices. Each state received a report card with letter grades in 13 categories, including access to information, political finance, electoral oversight, executive accountability, legislative accountability, judicial accountability, state budget processes, civil service oversight, internal auditing, procurement, ethics oversight, lobbying regulations, and management of state pension funds.
Public Transparency Index Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from U.S. PIRG, updated 2015. Higher values indicates more detailed information publicly available on state budgets. Grades for the scorecard determined by assigning points for information included on (or in some cases, linked to) a state’s transparency website or another government website that provides information on government spending.
Communications Arena
Nonprofit Newspaper Database Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Pew Research Center on Journalism & Media, collected in 2012 but updated periodically. Includes nonprofit public affairs, watchdog, investigative, and area-specific (education, etc) outlets, with varying levels of geographic scope, headquartered in a specific state..
Statehouse Reporting Index (# of Statehouse Reporters) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Pew Research Center on Journalism & Media, updated in 2014 .
Nonprofit Newspaper Database Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Pew Research Center on Journalism & Media, collected in 2012 but updated periodically. Includes nonprofit public affairs, watchdog, investigative, and area-specific (education, etc) outlets, with varying levels of geographic scope, headquartered in a specific state..
Corporate Arena
Perecentage of workers represented by unions Back to Top
Measure Note: US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics releases annual data on labor union participation; data released 2016.
ITEP Tax Equality Index (incl Corporate Taxes) Back to Top
Measure Note: Data from Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released January 2015. See ITEP Report for full methodology as well as individual state data and details.
Report Sources
Alan DiGaetano and Elizabeth Strom, "Comparative Urban Governance: An Integrated Approach," Urban Affairs Review 38, no. 3 (2003): 356–95.
Xavier de Souza Briggs, Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities across the Globe (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008); Pierre Clavel, The Progressive City: Planning and Participation, 1969-1984 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1986); Pierre Clavel and Wim Wiewel, Harold Washington and the Neighborhoods: Progressive City Government in Chicago, 1983-1987 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1991); David Dobbie, "From Coalitions to Movements: Realizing the Promise of Regional Power Building," WorkingUSA 12, no. 1 (2009): 57–71.
Briggs, Democracy as Problem Solving.
Peter Dreier, "Organizing in the Obama Era: A Progressive Movement or a New Progressive Era," John Marshall Law Review 42 (Spring 2009): 685.
Unless other specified, in this report, population, youth, and people of color growth rates are from the U.S. Census; immigrant growth rates and racial composition data are from the 2013 5-year American Community Survey; population projections are from the U.S. Census Bureau and Woods & Poole Economics, Inc.; jobs and wage data are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) and Woods & Poole Economics, Inc.; and voter turnout and registration rates are from the U.S. Census Bureau Voting and Registration Population Characteristic (P20) tables.
While median wages for workers actually fell between 2000 and 2010, the wage data reported here is calculated as average (or mean) earnings per job, which includes benefits.
Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson, "Union Membership, Coverage, Density and Employment by State, 1983-2014," 2014, http://www.unionstats.com/.
National League of Cities, "Local Government Authority," National League of Cities: Cities 101, n.d., http://www.nlc.org/build-skills- and-networks/resources/cities-101/city-powers/local-government-authority.
Deepak Pateriya and Patricia Castellanos, eds., Power Tools: A Manual for Organizations Fighting for Justice (Los Angeles, CA: Strate- gic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, 2003).
Bolder Advocacy, "PowerCheck: Community Organizing Capacity Tool" (Washington D.C.: Alliance for Justice, 2015), http://bolder- advocacy.org/tools-for-effective-advocacy/overview-of-evaluating-community-organizing/powercheck.
Justice at Stake, "Election vs. Appointment," Justice At Stake, 2016, http://www.justiceatstake.org/issues/state_court_issues/elec- tion-vs-appointment/.
Federal Judicial Center, "Inside the Federal Courts," Federal Judicial Center, n.d., http://www.fjc.gov/federal/courts.nsf/autof- rame!openform&nav=menu1&page=/federal/courts.nsf/page/152.
Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton, "Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action," in The Process and Effects of Mass Communication, Revised Edition (Urbana, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1971), 554–78.
Catherine Happer and Greg Philo, "The Role of the Media in the Construction of Public Belief and Social Change," Journal of Social and Political Psychology 1, no. 1 (2013): 321–36.
Vikas Nath, "Empowerment and Governance through Information and Communication Technologies: Women's Perspective," The International Information and Library Review 33, no. 4 (2001): 317–39.
Min-Dong Paul Lee, "A Review of the Theories of Corporate Social Responsibility: Its Evolutionary Path and the Road Ahead," Inter- national Journal of Management Reviews 10, no. 1 (2008): 53–73.
Tova Andrea Wang, "Election Reforms and Voter Turnout Among Low Propensity Voting Groups" (Washington D.C.: The Democracy Initiative, April 8, 2015).
Jared Walczak, "Nevada Approves New Tax on Business Gross Receipts" (Washington D. C.: Tax Foundation, June 8, 2015), http:// taxfoundation.org/article/nevada-approves-new-tax-business-gross-receipts.
Jim Carlton, "Reno Sees Future, and It Isn't Casinos," Wall Street Journal, October 23, 2015, sec. US, http://www.wsj.com/articles/ reno-sees-future-and-it-isnt-casinos-1445642382.
ACLU, "FAQ: The Nevada Legislature," n.d., http://www.aclunv.org/legislature.
Ballotpedia, "Comparison of State Legislative Salaries," n.d., https://ballotpedia.org/Comparison_of_state_legislative_salaries.
Samantha Lachman, "Conservatives Are Upset With Nevada Republicans For Failing To Pass A Voter ID Bill," The Huffington Post, June 17, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/17/nevada-voter-id_n_7604980.html.
Hirsch and Macpherson, "Union Membership, Coverage, Density and Employment by State, 1983-2014."
Kim Severson, "G.O.P. to Take Control in Long-Moderate North Carolina," The New York Times, December 11, 2012, http://www. nytimes.com/2012/12/12/us/politics/gop-to-take-control-in-long-moderate-north-carolina.html.
Kim D. Steffan, "'Right to Work' And 'Employment at Will,'" Steffan & Associates P.C., August 28, 2012, http://steffanlaw. com/%E2%80%9Cright-to-work%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Cemployment-at-will%E2%80%9D/. Hirsch and Macpherson, "Union Membership, Coverage, Density and Employment by State, 1983-2014."
Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor, Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America's Metro Areas (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2015).
As in the "Conditions of Change" section, the wage data reported here is calculated as average (or mean) earnings per job, which includes benefits.
Alan Mallach and Lavea Brachman, "Ohio's Cities at a Turning Point: Finding the Way Forward" (Washington D.C.: Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, May 2010), http://www.greaterohio.org/files/quick-downloads/shrinking-cities-paper.pdf.
For example: Rich Exner, "Gerrymandering Has Tilted Political Control in Ohio; Supreme Court Ruling Opens Door for Change,"
Cleveland.com, June 29, 2015, http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2015/06/gerrymandering_has_tilted_poli.html.
John Nichols, "Reform Wins: Ohio Bans Gerrymandering While Maine and Seattle Bust Big Money," The Nation, November 5, 2015, http://www.thenation.com/article/reform-wins-ohio-bans-gerrymandering-while-maine-and-seattle-bust-big-money/.
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, "Voting Laws Roundup 2015," Brennan Center for Justice, June 3, 2015, https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/voting-laws-roundup-2015.
Ohio Organizing Collaborative website, http://ohorganizing.org.
Ohio Organizing Collaborative, "2015 Electoral Report" (Youngstown, OH: OOC, 2015), http://ooc.jetcreative.com/wp-content/up- loads/2014/01/2015-C3-Electoral-Report.pdf.
Lois Beckett and Sharon Lee, "Five Ways Courts Say Texas Discriminated Against Black and Latino Voters," ProPublica, February 27, 2013, https://www.propublica.org/article/five-ways-courts-say-texas-discriminated-against-black-and-latino-voters.
Jonathan Brater, "Texas Photo ID Law Blocks Legitimate Voters," Brennan Center for Justice, April 16, 2015, https://www.brennan- center.org/blog/texas-photo-id-law-blocks-legitimate-voters.
National Conference of State Legislatures, "Legislative Session Length," National Conference of State Legislatures, n.d., http://www. ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/legislative-session-length.aspx.
Texans for Public Justice, "Austin's Oldest Profession: Texas' Top Lobby Clients & Those Who Service Them (2013-2014)" (Austin, TX: Texans for Public Justice, 2014).
Max Ehrenfreund, "The Facts about Rick Perry and the 'Texas Miracle,'" The Washington Post, June 8, 2015, https://www.washing- tonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/08/the-facts-about-rick-perry-and-the-texas-miracle/.
Benner and Pastor, Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America's Metro Areas.
ITEP, "Who Pays?, A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States" (Washington D. C.: The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), January 2015), http://www.itep.org/whopays/.
Gene Johnson, "Tim Eyman's Anti-Tax Measure Unconstitutional, Judge Rules," The Seattle Times, January 21, 2016, http://www. seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/judge-rules-eymans-anti-tax-measure-unconstitutional/.
Debbie Cafazzo, "State Supreme Court Says No — Again — to Washington Charter Schools," The News Tribune, November 19, 2015, http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/education/article45547353.html.
Benner and Pastor, Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America's Metro Areas.
Kelsey Stein, "What They're Saying Nationally about Alabama's Minimum Wage Dispute," AL.com, February 29, 2016, sec. s, http:// www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/02/what_theyre_saying_nationally.html.
Amanda Leonard Pohl and Ruth Berta, Building Power, Changing Lives: The Story of Virginia Organizing (New Orleans, LA: Social Policy Press, 2015), http://www.virginia-organizing.org/building-power-changing-lives-the-story-of-virginia-organizing-introduction/.
Randy Stoecker, "If It Can Happen in Virginia…," Shelterforce, March 4, 2016, http://rooflines.org/4407/if_it_can_happen_in_virgin- ia/.
Michael Lipsky, "Statehouse Scrutiny," Stanford Social Innovation Review 14, no. 2 (Spring 2016).
Manuel Pastor, Tom Jawetz, and Lizet Ocampo, "DAPA Matters: The Growing Electorate Directly Affected by Executive Action on Immigration" (Washington D. C.: Center for American Progress, November 2015), https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigra- tion/report/2015/11/19/125787/dapa-matters/.
Community Coalition website, http://cocosouthla.org/where-are-the-resources-for-prop-47-implementation/.
National Equity Atlas, http://nationalequityatlas.org/data-summaries.
Manuel Pastor, Gihan Perera, and Madeline Wander, "Moments, Movements, and Momentum: Engaging Voters, Scaling Power, Making Change" (Los Angeles, CA: USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, March 2013), https://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/ m3/.
These data refer to median hourly wage by race/ethnicity and come from the National Equity Atlas (http://nationalequityatlas.org/ data-summaries).
2014 5-year American Community Survey and National Equity Atlas, http://nationalequityatlas.org/data-summaries.
Theodore R. Johnson, "Can the Democratic Party Retain Its Hold on Black Voters?," The Atlantic, September 7, 2015, http://www. theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-changing-outlook-for-black-voters/403975/.
Liberty Hill Foundation website, http://www.libertyhill.org/commissions-training-program.
Pateriya and Castellanos, Power Tools: A Manual for Organizations Fighting for Justice.
