Data source: Nyrup and Bramwell
The WhoGov dataset enables researchers to take a new approach to studying governing elites in autocracies and democracies. The authors provide bibliographic information, such as gender and party affiliation, on cabinet members in July every year in the period 1966-2023 in all countries with a population of more than 400,000 citizens. In total, the dataset contains data on 50,197 cabinet members in 177 countries, adding up to 8,057 country-years. WhoGov makes it possible to answer questions such as; what is the share of female cabinet members globally, which type of regime has the highest cabinet turnover, and have cabinets increased in size over time? and many others. The dataset is highly flexible and can be used to calculate countless variables of interest, including the number of female ministers, ministerial experience, cabinet turnover and cabinet size at the country-year level.
The data is based on cabinet compositions in July for all years apart from 1966, where data was only available for September and 1970, where we are using January instead of July. Apart from the cross-sectional dataset that is used for the QoG Compilations, within-country dataset is available in the original source.
When using this dataset, please cite as:
(Nyrup & Bramwell,
2020)
Browse variables and select them for download.
wgov_leadexp
The number of years the person has been leader of the country in a row, continuous. Thus, it starts over if the leader is removed. The count starts at 1, when the leader first appear as leader in the ...
wgov_min
Number of cabinet ministers. This number only include cabinet ministers.
wgov_minage
Average age for cabinet ministers (people included for wgov_min).
wgov_minfem
The number of women in cabinet ministers (people included for wgov_min).
wgov_minmil
The number of cabinet ministers with a military title. It should be noted that the authors have not done any extra checks on this variable, and solely have relied on the information provided in the "C ...
wgov_minten
The average tenure for cabinet ministers (people included for wgov_min).
wgov_mret
The share of cabinet ministers (people included for wgov_min), who were in office the previous year. This measure is adjusted for an expansion of the size of wgov_min, so wgov_min stays constant and t ...
Number of entries for the country in the dataset. This number includes unoccupied positions and multiple positions held by the same persons.
wgov_totage
Average age for people in government positions, who were counted for wgov_tot.
wgov_totfem
The number of women in government positions, who were counted for wgov_tot.
wgov_totmil
The number of people in government positions with a military title. It should be noted that we have not done any extra checks on this variable, and solely have relied on the information provided in th ...
wgov_totten
The average tenure for people in government positions, who were counted for wgov_tot.
wgov_tret
The share of people in government positions, who were also in office in the previous year. This measure is adjusted for an expansion of the size of wgov_tot, so n_total stays constant and the retentio ...