This article introduces EPSM, a new global dataset documenting how education systems and policies have been shaped politically from 1789 to the present. EPSM enables study of political control over schooling and the ways education itself becomes politicized across countries and centuries.
📚 What EPSM Measures and Covers
- Core measures: compulsory education, ideological guidance and curricular content, governmental intervention and level of education centralization, and teacher training.
- Geographic and temporal scope: 157 countries with populations over 1 million; time series extend from 1789 to the present.
🧭 How the Data Were Collected and Evaluated
- Detailed description of sources and coding procedures provided for each measure.
- Discussion of validity and reliability issues accompanies the dataset so users can assess strengths and limitations for different research questions.
📈 What the Data Reveal and How They Can Be Used
- Presentation of historical trends in multiple education system characteristics across regions and time.
- Illustrative applications replicate and extend recent analyses on:
- the reciprocal relationship between education and democratization;
- the impact of education on political attitudes; and
- how rural inequality interacts with regime type to influence education systems.
🔍 Why This Matters
- EPSM creates new opportunities to test theories about state power, political socialization, and the politics of schooling using long-run, cross-national evidence.
