center for systemic peace inc.

What center for systemic peace inc. does

Center for Systemic Peace Inc. is a private, nonprofit research organization founded in 1994 and headquartered in Vienna, Virginia. It was established by Ted Robert Gurr and is currently led by Monty G. Marshall as Director and Principal Investigator. The organization produces systematic empirical data on political regimes, regime transitions, political violence, and state fragility, covering 167 countries with longitudinal series that extend from 1946 onward. Its core product is the Polity5 dataset, complemented by the State Fragility Index, the Coups d'Etat dataset, the Major Episodes of Political Violence series, and other related indicators.

The underlying technical asset is a proprietary expert-coded methodology — anchored by the Polity5 framework and related coding rules (e.g., PARCOMP=3) — that translates qualitative political characteristics into standardized, comparable numeric scores across countries and years. Distribution is free of charge to the global research community, with the organization historically operating a non-commercial, open-data model. From inception through early 2020, the organization was principally funded by the US Government through the Political Instability Task Force (PITF); that funding was terminated on February 29, 2020, and several data products have since been embargoed or delayed. The customer base consists of academic researchers, policy analysts, and partner institutions (including the University of Maryland, Societal-Systems Research Inc., IDMC, and USCRI), with limited commercial monetization.

Name

center for systemic peace inc.

Legal name

Center for Systemic Peace Inc.

Website

https://systemicpeace.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Center for Systemic Peace is a nonprofit research organization producing standardized, longitudinal data on political regimes, state fragility, and political violence across 167 countries, distributing datasets free to academic and policy research communities worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Political and Conflict Research Data

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172), Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities (922), Human Rights Organizations (813311)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), International Affairs (9721)

akta.pro primary industry

Democratic Governance & Public Administration Reform (BPADAGAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

National Statistics & Census Administration (BPAIAAAF), Peace, Security Sector Reform & Stabilization Programs (BPADABAH)

Keywords

• Political regime data
• Conflict research datasets
• State fragility metrics
• Regime transition analysis
• Governance research data

Headquarters

HQ city

Vienna

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

The Center for Systemic Peace produces and freely distributes longitudinal, cross-national research datasets and analytical products on political regime characteristics, state fragility, coups, political violence, and forcibly displaced populations, anchored by the Polity data series covering 167 countries from 1946-present. It also publishes the Video Book 'Managing Complexity in Modern Societal-Systems' and develops the Societal-Systems Analytics conceptual framework for understanding complex societal-system dynamics. These data resources are made available to the global academic and policy research community as a free service through the organization's website.

Product overview

The Center for Systemic Peace provides a suite of interconnected research products and data resources focused on political regime characteristics, societal conflict, and state stability. The core product is the Polity data series (Polity5 and Polity IV), which tracks political regime characteristics and transitions across 167 countries. This is supplemented by the INSCR (Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research) data resources including the State Fragility Index, Coups d'Etat Dataset, Major Episodes of Political Violence, Forcibly Displaced Populations, High Casualty Terrorist Bombings, and PITF State Failure Problem Set. Additional offerings include the Video Book on Managing Complexity in Modern Societal-Systems and experimental data series such as Executive and Party Structure (EPS) and Election Boycotts. These products are distributed as downloadable datasets (Excel, SPSS formats) rather than software platforms. The research organization was formerly funded by the US Government through the Political Instability Task Force (PITF) until February 2020.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Polity Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions dataset tracking democratic and autocratic patterns of authority in countries worldwide.
• INSCR
• Polity5

Products and services

• Polity5 Data Series Annual cross-national time-series data coding democratic and autocratic patterns of authority and regime changes. Covers 167 countries with populations greater than 500,000, covering the period 1800-2018 with refined data for 1946-2018. Distributed free for research use.
• Polity IV Individual Country Regime Trends Individual country regime trend graphs tracking annual Polity scores from 1946-2013, displaying periods of factionalism and important Polity change events including autocratic backsliding, executive auto-coup, revolution, collapse of central authority, and successful military coups. Distributed free for research use.
• Polity5 Regime Narratives Chronological explanations of changing political authority captured in country Polity scores. Narratives provide transparency into coding decisions and observable processes of managing regime authority amid political macro-level dynamics during the contemporary Globalization Era. Distributed free for research use.
• State Fragility Index and Matrix Annual state fragility, effectiveness, and legitimacy indices and eight component indicators for 167 countries. Includes technical notes describing each indicator and information sources. Distributed free for research use.
• Coups d'Etat Dataset Event list including successful, attempted, plotted, and alleged coup events from 1946-2021. Successful coups are cross-referenced to Polity IV data to distinguish adverse regime changes from autocratic coups. Distributed free for research use.
• Major Episodes of Political Violence Annual cross-national time-series data on interstate, societal, and communal warfare magnitude scores covering independence, interstate, ethnic, and civil violence and warfare for all countries from 1946-2018. Distributed free for research use.
• Forcibly Displaced Populations Cross-national time-series data on source and host refugees and internally displaced persons from 1964-2008, supplemented since 2006 by separate IDMC data on internally displaced persons. Distributed free for research use.
• High Casualty Terrorist Bombings Case list of bomb attacks on non-combatant targets by non-state actors resulting in 15 or more deaths, covering 1989-2021 with 1409 cases. Distributed free for research use.
• PITF State Failure Problem Set Annual data on cases of ethnic war, revolutionary war, adverse regime change, and genocide/politicide, including indicators of numbers of rebels, area affected, and numbers of deaths from 1955-2018. Distributed free for research use.
• Video Book: Managing Complexity in Modern Societal-Systems A lecture series/video book produced by CSP and Societal-Systems Research explaining how organic, complex societal-systems work, how they progress or degrade, and how they can be better managed. Consists of twenty video segments totaling approximately 10.5 hours.
• Executive and Party Structure (EPS) Annual data series with detailed information on chief executives and legislative/parliamentary party structures of regimes, including elections, type of executive, party of the executive, ruling party/coalition and main opposition party share of assembly seats. Undergoing data verification procedures.
• Election Boycotts Dataset Data series identifying cases of election and procedural boycotts in all countries covered by Polity5 data series over the contemporary period, 1946-present. Awaiting analysis and release as a plug-in to Polity5.

Quantifiable outcome

• Polar factionalism identified as strongest precursor to onset of political instability, particularly adverse regime change events and ethnic/revolutionary war onset

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Political Instability Task Force (PITF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 February 2020CSP/INSCR data resources including Polity and Coups datasets were funded by the US Government through the Political Instability Task Force from 1994-2020. PITF is funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. Funding was terminated on February 29, 2020, creating an embargo on further Polity data updates until new funding is secured.
• Keesing's OnlinecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Keesing's Online (record of world events) was used as the primary source for coding regime characteristics in the Polity5 project review and refinement effort. The temporary shutdown of Keesing's Online in 2013 delayed the Polity5 production until 2019 when it came back online.
• University of MarylandminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerTed Robert Gurr serves as Emeritus Professor at University of Maryland and is credited as Founder of the Polity IV Project.
• Societal-Systems Research Inc.coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMonty G. Marshall serves as Principal Investigator and Director of the Polity Project through Societal-Systems Research Inc., a related research organization.
• Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSince 2006, IDMC has provided separate data on internally displaced persons, supplementing CSP's Forcibly Displaced Populations dataset.
• U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCSP utilizes USCRI World Refugee Survey series data for cross-national, time-series data on refugees and internally displaced persons in the Forcibly Displaced Populations dataset.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP): Produces the most widely cited datasets on organized violence and armed conflict. Direct overlap with CSP's Major Episodes of Political Violence, PITF State Failure Problem Set, and Coups d'Etat series.
• Economist Intelligence Unit (Democracy Index): Publishes the annual EIU Democracy Index with country regime typologies. Closely comparable product in regime classification methodology and global coverage, although commercial rather than nonprofit.
• Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI): Assesses governance and political transformation in ~140 developing/transition economies using expert-coded indicators; comparable regime/governance dataset aimed at academic and policy users.
• International IDEA: Intergovernmental organization producing the Global State of Democracy Indices and related democratic-governance data; comparable mandate around democratic governance assessment and cross-national comparability.
• V-Dem Institute (Varieties of Democracy): The leading peer in cross-national regime measurement. V-Dem produces annual expert-coded democracy indicators for ~200 countries and is the principal methodological substitute for Polity in academic and policy research.
• Fund for Peace: Producer of the Fragile States Index, the closest commercial-analogue counterpart to CSP's State Fragility Index and Matrix across comparable country coverage and indicators.
• Freedom House: Producer of Freedom in the World and related political-rights/civil-liberties indices covering virtually every country. Highly comparable audience of researchers, journalists, and policymakers tracking regime quality.

Broad incumbents

• World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators: Aggregates multiple data sources to produce comparative governance indicators across countries. Overlaps with Polity on regime-quality measurement but serves a much broader institutional/governance remit.

Emerging players

• Bright Line Watch: Academic survey-based initiative tracking democratic norms and practices, primarily in the United States. Adjacent niche player leveraging expert panels to detect democratic backsliding, partially overlapping Polity's factionalism/regime-change signals.

Others

• International Crisis Group: Produces qualitative Country Reports and CrisisWatch briefings on political instability and armed conflict globally. Complementary qualitative counterpoint to CSP's quantitative conflict datasets, often co-cited in policy research.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC6aH1H6a6a6a6a6a6a6a6a6
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/center-for-systemic-peace-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about center for systemic peace inc.