The Authoritarian Regimes Dataset version 6.0 covers the time period 1972-2014 and includes all 192 nations recognized as members of the UN except the four micro states of Europe (Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino) and two micro states in the Pacific that are not members of the World Bank (Nauru and Tuvalu).
The variables for "Colonial Origin" and "Region" were updated until 2014 by the original authors. QoG imputes this information until 2021.
Last updated by source: 2017-08-10
| Dataset type: | Time-Series |
| Dataset level: | Country |
(Wahman et al., 2013)
(Hadenius & Teorell,
2007)
(Teorell & Wahman,
2018)
This is a tenfold classification of the former colonial ruler of the country. Following Bernard et al. (2004), we have excluded the British settler colonies (the US, Canada, Australia, Israel and New Zealand), and exclusively focused on 'Western overseas' colonialism. This implies that only Western colonizers (e.g. excluding Japanese colonialism), and only countries located in the non-Western hemisphere 'overseas' (e.g. excluding Ireland \& Malta), have been coded. Each country that has been colonized since 1700 is coded. In cases of several colonial powers, the last one is counted, if it lasted for 10 years or longer. The categories are the following: <ol start="0"> <li> Never colonized by a Western overseas colonial power</li> <li> Dutch</li> <li> Spanish</li> <li> Italian</li> <li> US</li> <li> British</li> <li> French</li> <li> Portuguese</li> <li> Belgian</li> <li> British-French</li> <li> Australian</li> </ol>
More about this variableImputed average Polity [original variable revpol2] & Freedom House [original variable fhadd] scores (scaled 0–10), where missing values have been imputed by regressing the fhpol index on the Freedom House scores [original variable fhadd], which have better country coverage than Polity2 Countries with an ifhpol score larger than 7.0 are coded as democracies. This variable replaces the variable previously called fh_ipolity2.
More about this variableCounts the largest parties' number of seats divided by the legislative assemblies' total number of seats expressed in fractions. In countries with a two-chamber parliament, the lower house is counted.
More about this variableThis is a tenfold politico-geographic classification of world regions, based on a mixture of two considerations: geographical proximity (with the partial exception of category 5 below) and demarcation by area specialists having contributed to a regional understanding of democratization. The categories are as follow: 1. Eastern Europe and post Soviet Union (including Central Asia) 2. Latin America (including Cuba, Haiti \& the Dominican Republic) 3. North Africa \& the Middle East (including Israel, Turkey \& Cyprus) 4. Sub-Saharan Africa 5. Western Europe and North America (including Australia \& New Zealand) 6. East Asia (including Japan \& Mongolia) 7. South-East Asia 8. South Asia 9. The Pacific (excluding Australia \& New Zealand) 10. The Caribbean (including Belize, Guyana \& Suriname, but excluding Cuba, Haiti \& the Dominican Republic)
More about this variableThis typology of authoritarian regimes is based on a distinction between three modes of political power maintenance (probably the three most widely used throughout history): hereditary succession (lineage), corresponding to monarchies; the actual or threatened use of military force, corresponding to military regimes; and popular elections, designating electoral regimes. Among the latter we distinguish among no-party regimes (where all parties are prohibited), one-party regimes (where all but one party is prohibited), and limited multiparty regimes (where multiple parties are allowed but the system still does not pass as democratic); a subtype of these regimes where no parties are present, although not being prohibited, are coded as "partyless'' regimes. A subtype of military regimes are coded "rebel regimes'', where a rebel movement has taken power by military means. We also code hybrids (or amalgams) combining elements from more than one regime type, as well as several minor types of regimes: "theocracies'', "transitional'' regimes, "civil war'', foreign "occupation'', and a residual "other'' category. Using the mean of the Freedom House and Polity scales (fh_ipolity2), the line between democracies and autocracies is drawn at 7.5. This threshold value was chosen by estimating the mean cutoff point separating democracy from autocracy in five well-known categorical measures of democracy: those of Przeworski et al. (2000), Mainwaring et al. (2001), and Reich (2002), together with Freedom House's and Polity's own categorical thresholds for democracy. 1. Limited Multiparty 2. Partyless 3. No-Party 4. Military 5. Military No-Party 6. Military Multiparty 7. Military One-party 8. One-Party 9. Other 16. One-Party Monarchy 17. Monarchy 18. Rebel Regime 19. Civil War 20. Occupation 21. Theocracy 22. Transitional Regime 23. No-Party Monarchy 24. Multiparty Monarchy 25. Multiparty-Occupied 100. Democracy
More about this variableA simplified, collapsed version of ht_regtype, where all monarchical regimes with amalgams [ht_regtype =16, 17, 23 or 24] are treated as monarchies, all military regimes with sub-types and amalgams [ht_regtype=4, 5, 6, 7 or 18] are treated as military regimes, and multiparty regimes with sub-types are treated as multiparty regimes [ht_regtype=1 or 2]. Only pure noparty [ht_regtype=3] and one-party [ht_regtype=8] regimes are treated as no-party and one-party regimes, respectively. The minor types [ht_regtype=9, 19, 20, 21, 22 or 25] are treated as other. 1. Monarchy 2. Military 3. One party 4. Multi-party 9. No-party 99. Other 100. Democracy
More about this variable