Some Attributes and Behavioral Patterns of Nations
| Published date | 01 June 1967 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234336700400206 |
| Date | 01 June 1967 |
| Author | R.J. Rummel |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Research
Communication:
SOME
ATTRIBUTES
AND
BEHAVIORAL
PATTERNS
OF
NATIONS*
By
R. J.
RUMMEL
University
of
Hawaii
The
purpose
of
this
communication
is
to
make
available
some
of
the
latest
empirical
results
of
the
Dimensionality
of
Nations
Project
(Rummel,
1966)
in
as
non-technical
fashion
as
possible.
The
rather
extensive
information
needed
to
evaluate
technically
and
replicate
these
results
will
be
fully
presented
elsewhere,
such
as
Rummel,
et
al.
(1967).
The
findings
to
be
given
help
delineate
some
of
the
patterns
in
the
attributes
and
the
conflict
behavior
of
nations,
presented
through
a
number
of
concise
displays.
The
first
three
of
these
displays
communicate
the
consequence
of
analyzing
1955 data
on
236
characteristics
of
82
nations
to
de-
termine
the
major
attribute
dimensions
(patterns)
of
variation
for
nations.&dquo;
This
analysis
reduced
a
large
mass
of
complex,
interrelated
data
to
a
small
number
of
distinct
basic
patterns.
The
remaining
displays
reveal
the
result
of
similarly
analyzing
1955 data
on
the
conflict
actions
of
nations
to
define
their
major
patterns
of
conflict
behavior.
Display
1.
This
shows
the
basic
patterns
of
relationships
between
236
cross-national
characteristics.
Since
the
characteristics
themselves
are
too
many
to
display,
only
the
relationship
between
the
various
types
of
characteristics
and
the
patterns
are
shown.
The
types
of
characteristics
(vari-
ables)
are
listed
down
the
left
side
of
Dis-
play
1
and
are
subdivided
into
charac-
teristics
relevant
to
the
internal
structure
of
a
nation,
the
external
or
international
relations
of
a
nation,
and
data
error.
The
last
category
is
composed
of
indices
meas-
uring
various
aspects
of
cross-national
data
error,
such
as
population
census
reliability,
or
deviation
from
internation-
ally
accepted
definitions
for
a
characteristic
like
infant
mortality
rate.
Across
the
top
of
the
display
are
given
three
levels
of
patterns.
The
first
level,
the
primary
dimensions
of
cross-national
data,
defines
the
immediate
regularities
ob-
served
in
the
data.
Each
of
the
fifteen
di-
mensions
is
a
distinct
pattern
of
relation-
ships
between
the
characteristics.
Which
characteristics
are
interrelated
to
form
what
pattern
is
denoted
by
an
’X’
in
the
column
for
a
pattern.
Thus,
for
example,
the
sixth
pattern
of
‘Catholic
Culture’
con-
sists
of
intercorrelations
between
value
(e.g.,
proportion
of
Catholics),
interna-
tional
organizations
(e.g.
number
of
mem-
berships
in
nongovernmental
international
organizations
concerned
with
law),
and
political
geography
(e.g.,
distance
from
the
United
States)
characteristics.
By
studying
the
primary
patterns
of
Dis-
play
1
in
terms
of
those
characteristics
in-
cluded
or
excluded
in
a
pattern,
a
number
of
interesting
empirical
facets
of
cross-na-
tional
variation
can
be
seen.
For
instance,
the
economic
development
pattern
is
shown
to
be
the
largest
in
terms
of
the
number
of
different
kinds
of
characteristics
it
in-
cludes.
This
implies
that
economic
devel-
opment
is
the
single
most
important
source
of
variation
in
the
internal
structure
and
foreign
behavior
of
nations.
Note
partic-
ularly
that
this
pattern
does
not
include
foreign
or
domestic
conflict
type
charac-
teristics
(such
as
riots,
general
strikes,
rev-
olutions,
mobilizations,
troop
movements
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