Leviathan's Latent Dimensions: Measuring State Capacity for Comparative Political Research

State capacity is a core concept in political science research, and it is widely recognized that state institutions exert considerable influence on outcomes such as economic development, civil conflict, democratic consolidation, and international security. Yet, researchers across these fields of inquiry face common problems involved in conceptualizing and measuring state capacity. In this article, we examine these conceptual issues, identify three core dimensions of state capacity, and develop the expectation that they are mutually supporting and interlinked. We then use Bayesian latent variable analysis to estimate state capacity at the conjunction of indicators related to these dimensions. We find strong interrelationships between the three dimensions and produce a new, general-purpose measure of state capacity with demonstrated validity for use in a wide range of empirical inquiries. It is hoped that this project will provide effective guidance and tools for researchers studying the causes and consequences of state capacity.