Pre-v1 Expansion Candidate Matrix

Status: candidate-ranking artifact for GitHub issue #176. Rights/provenance decisions for these candidates are recorded in docs/corpus/pre-v1-expansion-rights-provenance-review.md.

This matrix applies the pre-v1 expansion rubric in case-selection.qmd. It is a selection document, not a rights-clearance decision. Use the #177 rights/provenance review before any new source text enters the corpus.

Recommendation

Admit a small expansion set:

  1. Add French Revolution / Jacobin Republic as the first new case.
  2. Add British World War I / Lloyd George wartime leadership as the second new case.
  3. Add a tightly bounded set of existing-case documents for American Revolution, Lincoln, and Napoleon.
  4. Defer Imperial Japan as the highest-value reserve candidate unless issue #177 quickly resolves source-language, translation, and rights questions.

This set improves the comparative design without reopening the corpus as a general source-harvesting project. It adds one strongly positive revolutionary-purification case, one democratic wartime limiting/control case, and a few document-level repairs to current cases.

Candidate Case Ranking

Rank Candidate ID Proposed layer Primary rationale Comparative role Source base to review Rights risk Language policy Expected corpus size Annotation cost Reliability impact Comparative gain Exclusion risk Recommendation
1 fr-rev New case Confirmatory + comparative Positive test for republican virtue, purification, terror, sacred people, and enemy construction outside the current leader/empire/genocide set. French originals from Robespierre/Saint-Just speeches, Convention reports, and public revolutionary texts; English translations only as aids if rights-cleared. Medium until editions and translations are chosen; likely low for French originals. Annotate French source text with English glosses for contested terms such as vertu, patrie, peuple, tyrannie, purification, terreur, sacrifice. Medium: 4-6 documents or excerpts, roughly 20k-40k source words. Medium: French source-language MIPVU and gloss review required. Human/model reliability sampling should include at least one French revolutionary document or a targeted French-language validation sample. Tests whether sacrifice/purification logic appears in revolutionary virtue and terror without collapsing into the Napoleon or Hitler patterns. Can become too broad if the whole Revolution replaces a leader/movement-centered corpus. Admit as first new case after #177 rights/provenance review.
2 wwi-britain New case Limiting/control + comparative Democratic wartime mobilization case with sacrifice and endurance rhetoric but no genocidal enemy-destruction project. Lloyd George wartime speeches, parliamentary speeches, war addresses, and published wartime collections; possible Asquith or royal texts only if needed for phase coverage. Low-medium; many candidate texts are pre-1929 publications, but edition-specific rights review is still required. English source text. No translation burden. Medium-small: 5-7 speeches or addresses, roughly 20k-35k words. Low-medium: English, familiar register, but wartime parliamentary rhetoric may be long. Useful as an English-language reliability contrast for non-genocidal wartime rhetoric. Adds non-U.S. democratic wartime comparison and tests whether sacrifice language alone predicts strong Koenigsbergian support. May duplicate Lincoln’s democratic wartime register unless documents are chosen for distinct empire, parliamentary, and total-war context. Admit as second new case after #177 rights/provenance review.
3 imperial-japan New case or reserve case Comparative + confirmatory Non-Western imperial-sacrificial and emperor-centered case; possible strong test for sacred object, death obligation, and body-politic loyalty. Imperial Rescript on Education, Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, wartime rescripts, official translations, kokutai materials, and selected wartime speeches. Medium-high until Japanese originals, official translations, and storage policy are resolved. Prefer Japanese source text with English glosses; official English translations may be aids only unless rights-cleared. Medium: likely 15k-35k words for a compact core. High: Japanese source-language annotation and translation-sensitive terms require specialist review. Would force reliability sampling to address a non-European, non-English case. Adds the strongest language/geographic contrast and tests sacrifice without importing Western Christian/republican assumptions. Translation and rights risk could delay the whole expansion window. Defer as reserve; admit only if #177 clears a compact source set quickly.
4 wilson-wwi New case or backup Control + source-availability U.S. democratic wartime mobilization, international moral order, sacrifice, and enemy threat. Public presidential messages and speeches, including 1917 war message and wartime addresses. Low for U.S. government/public presidential materials, subject to edition review. English source text. Small-medium: 4-6 speeches, roughly 15k-30k words. Low. Useful reliability comparison, but adds another U.S. case. Very easy acquisition and clean provenance. Overweights U.S. democratic rhetoric after American Revolution and Lincoln. Defer; use only if British WWI fails rights/provenance review.
5 stalin-wwii Future case Comparative + limiting/confirmatory Soviet patriotic war, leader/state/people rhetoric, enemy annihilation, sacrifice, and ideological sacred object. Russian wartime speeches, orders, radio addresses, official English translations, Soviet publications. Medium-high; translation and edition rights need careful review. Russian source text with English glosses if admitted. Medium. High. Would require Russian-language reliability planning. Adds communist/state-socialist contrast. Source and translation complexity likely too high for a bounded pre-v1 window. Defer to future milestone.
6 mao-ccp Future case Comparative Revolutionary communist mass-mobilization and sacrifice rhetoric. Mao selected works, party documents, speeches, and translations. High; modern copyright and translation rights likely constrain committed corpus use. Chinese source text with English glosses if ever admitted. Medium-large. High. Would require Chinese-language reliability planning. Adds non-Western revolutionary contrast. Rights, translation, and corpus-boundary burden exceed current window. Reject for pre-v1; revisit only as future metadata/context work.

Existing-case Targeted Additions

Priority Case Candidate document Proposed layer Rationale Source base to review Rights risk Annotation cost Recommendation
1 am-rev Jefferson rough draft of the Declaration Existing-case balanced core or extended corpus The source registry already identifies the draft as analytically important for editorial suppression and substitution of sacrifice language. Founders Online / National Archives materials already referenced in cases/am-rev/metadata/source-registry.json. Low, pending source-record confirmation. Low-medium. Admit if #177 confirms source path and storage policy.
2 am-rev Washington’s Newburgh Address, 15 March 1783 Existing-case extended corpus Adds crisis-of-army, sacrifice, debt, honor, and civil-military restraint after military service. Founders Online or National Archives transcription to verify. Low-medium. Low-medium. Admit if it does not duplicate existing 1783 circular/order material.
3 lincoln First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1861 Existing-case balanced core Adds prewar union, constitutional oath, sacred bond, coercion/force limits, and disunion before battlefield sacrifice. Library of Congress / Miller Center / public-domain presidential text to verify. Low. Low. Admit; it fills a phase gap before Lyceum, Gettysburg, and Second Inaugural.
4 lincoln Special Message to Congress, 4 July 1861 Existing-case extended corpus Adds war-authorization, democracy-as-experiment, rebellion, sacrifice, and constitutional crisis rhetoric. Public-domain presidential message sources to verify. Low. Medium due length. Admit only if the expanded Lincoln case can tolerate one long war-message document.
5 napoleon Proclamation to the Army of Italy, 1796 Existing-case extended corpus Adds non-bulletin leader-to-army address from the rise phase and tests glory, destiny, poverty/plunder, and army-body rhetoric. French original in Napoleon correspondence or public historical collections to verify. Low-medium. Medium: French glosses needed. Admit if source text is clean enough; otherwise defer.
6 napoleon Farewell to the Old Guard, 1814 Existing-case metadata-only or extended corpus Adds defeat/abdication, loyalty, glory, and body-politic residue after imperial collapse. French original and edition status to verify. Low-medium. Low due short text. Defer unless phase-closure evidence is needed; it may distort the current battle-bulletin design.
7 hitler Goebbels or Goering support material Existing-case support layer Could test whether non-Hitler Nazi rhetoric strengthens or shifts the existing Hitler-centered findings. German originals and translation/storage policy unresolved. Medium-high. High. Defer; do not add until the existing open decision on support-material limits is resolved.

Explicit Exclusions For This Window

  • Do not add a broad “all French Revolution” corpus.
  • Do not add a broad “all World War I Britain” corpus.
  • Do not add Wilson if wwi-britain clears rights review; doing both would overweight English democratic wartime cases.
  • Do not add Imperial Japan unless #177 resolves a compact, source-language corpus with manageable translation and storage policies.
  • Do not add Mao/CCP materials in this window because modern rights and translation constraints are too likely to slow the milestone.
  • Do not add new Hitler support texts until the support-material boundary is decided.
  • Do not redownload or replace current verified corpora except to repair a documented source defect.

Issue Routing

  • #177 should rights-review the recommended fr-rev, wwi-britain, and existing-case additions before acquisition.
  • #178 should add fr-rev if #177 clears its compact source set.
  • #179 should add wwi-britain if #177 clears its compact source set.
  • #180 should add only the approved targeted documents for existing cases.
  • #183 should update reliability sampling after the expansion set is confirmed.