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What's all this, then?

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I've noticed that for many articles about countries, the economy section flatly fails to adhere to the NPOV. At least partly, this appears to be because prose is copied verbatim from the CIA world factbook. In order to get an idea of the scope of the problem, I'm currently looking at all country articles, and the list below is supposed to help me keep track.

The most common problem, by far, is that a causal relationship is asserted as a statement, without attributing it to anyone. Economics is complicated, and care must be taken only to use this construction when the causation is, well, beyond a reasonable doubt.

Passing judgement on a government, in the way the CIA factbook frequently does by declaring it or its economic policies "sound", "imprudent", and the like, is unacceptable except, possibly, in the most extreme of cases.

There's also a general point of view that high GDP and full employment are ipso facto good things; this isn't very controversial, but it's not universally accepted either. When such problems can be fixed with simple rewording, I'll generally do that.

Statistics

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(I'm not sure all the counts are accurate, I copy-and-pasted to wc):

Of 246 articles I looked at, 108 seemed okay with regard to the concerns above (though 8 of those had other, non-NPOV issues); 65 had problems (4 of which had severe problems) with the NPOV; 12 had no economy section, or only numbers in the economy section; 57 countries received no classification, which means that while the section appears troubling, I'm not totally sure that it's violating the NPOV. Those countries don't have severe issues.

Strategy

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I'm thinking of setting up a "pipeline", in a way, in order to fix those countries:

  • decide which countries to fix, review and archive the economy section
  • check the article to see whether there's already a discussion going on about these issues
  • save a copy of the economy section
  • post a (boilerplate, mostly) text to the article's talk page
  • wait a certain period (1 week is my current idea), during which I intend to be available for discussion
  • if no consensus has been reached, go back to the previous step
  • make changes to the article

I will go slow, starting by putting one article a day in the pipeline. I will also start with countries that have severe issues but whose articles aren't extremely heavily edited.

Boilerplate text (under construction)

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I have reviewed the "Economy" section in all country articles on Wikipedia; unfortunately, many of them have NPOV issues, and by my reading, this article is one of them.

Common issues with this section include:

  • verbatim quotes from the CIA world factbook
  • describing a country's economic policy as "sound", "unsound", "imprudent", etc.
  • assuming a link between economic health and low inflation
  • using expressions like "the GDP improved" (should be increased), "beneficial levels of inflation" (should be low levels of inflation), etc.
  • postulating cause-effect relationships that seem controversial.

Issues in this specific article are:

This note will stay up for a week before I'll make any further changes. Please feel free to be bold and fix the article yourself, though! I'll also be monitoring this discussion page, and will try answering any concerns.

If you want to discuss the entire project, you can do so on my talk page or at the talk page for this specific project.

The perfect Economy section

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I personally would like to find, at least, something about the following numbers:

  • real GDP growth per year in recent years. Note that this number is properly expressed in percent per annum, not just percent.
  • real GDP per capita growth. This is arguably even more important than the previous measure, because real GDP per capita is what is widely used as a measure of economic development. Again, percent per annum, not just percent.
  • currency: this is important! it's no longer the case that it's "normal" for a country to have its own currency, and even if it does, this currency might or might not be pegged. If it's pegged, is it backed?
  • inflation: inflation should always be stated with both the currency and the region it applies to! a pegged currency naturally has an inflation rate very close to that of the currency it's pegged to. Also keep in mind that inflation isn't necessarily a bad thing, at least according to the NPOV.
  • income distribution: there's a standard measure of this, the name of which I forget.

The Pipeline

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Considered for talk page notice

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Talk page notice given

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Through the pipeline

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Panama#Economy

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considered: June 18 talk page notice: June 18 fixed (by other editor): September 17

notes: rvv

Mali#Economy

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considered: June 18 talk page notice: June 19 fixed: September 17

notes: rvv

Tuvalu#Economy

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considered: June 19 talk page notice: June 20 fixed: September 17

Georgia (country)#Economy

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considered: June 21 talk page notice: June 21 half-fix (needs rewrite): September 17

Economy section okay (for now) (108 countries)

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totally okay

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minor edits required

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  • Bermuda Bermuda (UK overseas territory) ("equivalent", not equal?)
  • The Gambia Gambia, The – Republic of The Gambia (needs uspov and copyedit though)
  • Liechtenstein Liechtenstein – Principality of Liechtenstein (minor copyedit required)
  • Portugal Portugal – Portuguese Republic (copyedit required though)
  • Puerto Rico Puerto Rico – Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (US overseas commonwealth) (copyedit though - compares median GDP in one region with average GDP in another)
  • Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon (French overseas community)
  • Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (copyedit though)
  • Svalbard Svalbard (Territory of Norway) (uspov though)

Economy section has problems (65 countries)

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fixed (on reversal watch)

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in the pipeline

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less severe issues

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severe issues

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  • Argentina Argentina – Argentine Republic[2] (severe)
  • Armenia Armenia – Republic of Armenia (severe)
  • Germany Germany – Federal Republic of Germany (severe issues)

Review again (57 countries)

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  • Australia Australia – Commonwealth of Australia (potential minor issues)
  • Austria Austria – Republic of Austria (potential minor issues)
  • The Bahamas Bahamas, The – Commonwealth of The Bahamas
  • Bahrain Bahrain – Kingdom of Bahrain
  • Belarus Belarus – Republic of Belarus (severe non-NPOV issues)
  • Benin Benin – Republic of Benin ("should"?)
  • Bhutan Bhutan – Kingdom of Bhutan (gross national happiness section)
  • Bolivia Bolivia – Republic of Bolivia (definitely review privatisation bit again)
  • Brunei Brunei – Negara Brunei Darussalam ("stated plans include reducing unemployment")
  • Central African Republic Central African Republic
  • China China (People's Republic of) – People's Republic of China
  • Colombia Colombia – Republic of Colombia
  • Comoros Comoros – Union of the Comoros
  • Croatia Croatia – Republic of Croatia
  • Cuba Cuba – Republic of Cuba
  • Czech Republic Czech Republic
  • Denmark Denmark – Kingdom of Denmark
  • Ecuador Ecuador – Republic of Ecuador
  • Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea – Republic of Equatorial Guinea (seems to be contradictory)
  • Eritrea Eritrea – State of Eritrea
  • Faroe Islands Faroe Islands (Self-governing country in the Kingdom of Denmark)
  • France France – French Republic
  • Ghana Ghana – Republic of Ghana
  • Gibraltar Gibraltar (UK overseas territory) (just "advantages", really)
  • Guatemala Guatemala – Republic of Guatemala (currently out of date)
  • Guernsey Guernsey – Bailiwick of Guernsey (British Crown dependency) (er, what? "Unlike many countries Guernsey has not delegated money-creation to the central bank and has instead issued interest-free money since 1816. As a result the government has not had to use increasing amounts of tax revenue to repay debt to the central bank, which has led to low income tax rates, no goods and services tax and no capital gains tax." is nutty).
  • Hong Kong Hong Kong – Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (Area of special sovereignty) ("exponential increase" copyedit required)
  • Hungary Hungary – Republic of Hungary (copyedit though)
  • India India – Republic of India
  • Iraq Iraq – Republic of Iraq (probably okay)
  • Republic of Ireland Ireland
  • Israel Israel – State of Israel
  • Jamaica Jamaica
  • Laos Laos – Lao People's Democratic Republic
  • Lebanon Lebanon – Republic of Lebanon
  • Liberia Liberia – Republic of Liberia (minor copyedit, at least)
  • Malawi Malawi – Republic of Malawi
  • Mexico Mexico – United Mexican States
  • Myanmar Myanmar – Union of Myanmar
  • Netherlands Netherlands – Kingdom of the Netherlands
  • New Zealand New Zealand (seems okay)
  • Oman Oman – Sultanate of Oman (minor language: improved for increased etc)
  • Philippines Philippines – Republic of the Philippines (major copyedit required)
  • Poland Poland – Republic of Poland (copyedit required)
  • Romania Romania (long section, "was transformed" to "has changed" is a no-brainer though)
  • Singapore Singapore – Republic of Singapore
  • Slovakia Slovakia – Slovak Republic
  • Somalia Somalia (seems okay)
  • Suriname Suriname – Republic of Suriname
  • Syria Syria – Syrian Arab Republic
  • Tonga Tonga – Kingdom of Tonga
  • Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago – Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
  • Uruguay Uruguay – Oriental Republic of Uruguay
  • Vietnam Vietnam – Socialist Republic of Vietnam
  • Western Sahara Western Sahara – Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
  • Zambia Zambia – Republic of Zambia (seems okay)
  • Zimbabwe Zimbabwe – Republic of Zimbabwe (seems okay)

No Economy section (12 countries)

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  1. ^ See also Nagorno-Karabakh.
  2. ^ Argentina is also named Argentine Nation for purposes of legislation.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference ABK was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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