Data source: Geddes, Wright and Frantz
When the leader of an autocratic regime loses power, one of three things happens. The incumbent leadership group is replaced by democratically elected leaders. Someone from the incumbent leadership group replaces them, and the regime persists. Or the incumbent leadership group loses control to a different group that replaces it with a new autocracy. The dataset facilitates the investigation of all three kinds of transition. The data identify how regimes exit power, how much violence occurs during transitions, and whether the regimes that precede and succeed them are autocratic. The data identify autocratic regime breakdowns regardless of whether the country democratizes, which makes possible the investigation of why the ouster of dictators sometimes leads to democracy but often does not, and many other questions.
When using this dataset, please cite as:
(Geddes et al.,
2014)
Browse variables and select them for download.
gwf_duration
Time-varying duration of autocratic regime up to time T.
gwf_failsub
Categorical variable marking the subsequent regime type: 0. No regime failure at duration time t and regime still in power December 31, 2010 1. Subsequent regime is democracy 2. Subsequent regime ...
gwf_failtype
Categorical variable marking how the autocratic regime ends: 0. Regime still in power on December 31, 2010 1. Regime insiders change rules of regime 2. Incumbent loses elections 3. No incum ...
gwf_failviolent
Categorical variable marking the level of violence during the autocratic regime failure event: 0: Regime still in power on December 31, 2010 1. No deaths 2. 1-25 deaths 3. 26-1000 deaths 4. >10 ...
gwf_regimetype
Autocratic regime type: 1. Monarchy 2. Personal 3. Military 4. Party 5. Party-Personal 6. Party-Military 7. Military-Personal 8. Party-Personal-Military 9. Oligarchy 10. Indirect Military