Defining Regimes
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Przeworski, et al. DataClassification of political regimes as democracy and dictatorship. Classification of democracies as parliamentary, semi-presidential (mixed) and presidential. Classification of dictatorships as military, civilian and royal.
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Freedom HouseMeasures various indices of political freedom around the world. Separate reports on democracy, press freedom, and internet freedom are also available.
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Geddes, Wright and Frantz (Autocratic Regime Data)Dataset informing the book How Dictatorships Work by Barbara Geddes, Joseph Wright, and Erica Frantz.
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Polity V Political Regime Characteristics and TransitionsAnnual Polity scores have been plotted for each of the 167 countries currently covered by the Polity V data series for the period 1800-2018.
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Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project(Some V-dem indicators go back to 1789 until the present). V-dem has 5 indices of democracy’s quality. The first index (electoral democracy) is required for the resulting 4 entitled: liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian. Conceptually electoral democracy is equivalent to Dahl’s classic formulation.
The V-Dem codebook is vast! The following pages are most crucial to understand their measures: Page 37, Pages 43-56. You can then use the search function by individual variable names to look at how individual variables are scaled and coded. https://www.v-dem.net/static/website/img/refs/codebookv111.pdf
To easily look up countries and graph them without downloading the large dataset (not to select the original scale to interpret these graphs): https://www.v-dem.net/graphing/graphing-tools/
See also page 40 of the following report: https://www.v-dem.net/documents/29/V-dem_democracyreport2023_lowres.pdf
To read more about the Regimes of the World classification system used in some of V-dem’s work: Regimes of the World (RoW) .pdf
Economic Factors
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Bertelsmann Transformation IndexThe BTI is the result of the collaboration of nearly 300 country and regional experts from leading universities and think tanks worldwide. The project analyzes and compares transformation processes towards democracy and inclusive market economy worldwide.
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CIA World FactbookA comprehensive resource of facts and statistics on more than 250 countries and other entities. Older editions can be found at this site.
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Europa World Year BookAn authoritative reference work, providing a wealth of detailed information on the political, economic and commercial institutions of the world. Last edition available is 2011.
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Europa Regional Surveys of the World: Africa South of the SaharaEach volume provides a vast range of background material, statistics, directory information and expert analysis of the social, political and economic situation for each of the individual countries within that region.
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Europa Regional Surveys of the World: Eastern Europe, Russia and Central AsiaEach volume provides a vast range of background material, statistics, directory information and expert analysis of the social, political and economic situation for each of the individual countries within that region.
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Europa Regional Surveys of the World: Far East and AustralasiaEach volume provides a vast range of background material, statistics, directory information and expert analysis of the social, political and economic situation for each of the individual countries within that region.
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Europa Regional Surveys of the World: Middle East and North AfricaEach volume provides a vast range of background material, statistics, directory information and expert analysis of the social, political and economic situation for each of the individual countries within that region.
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Europa Regional Surveys of the World: South America, Central America and the CaribbeanEach volume provides a vast range of background material, statistics, directory information and expert analysis of the social, political and economic situation for each of the individual countries within that region.
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Our World in DataCompiles a wide range of global data and presents it with user-friendly interactive graphing tools, infographics, and discussion articles. Topics include Demographics, Health, Energy and environment, Food and agriculture, Poverty, Education, Technological change, Well-being, Human rights, and Violence and war.
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UNCTADstatSelections of key economic statistics by country. They include a wide range of internationally comparable indicators allowing users to assess and compare countries.
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UN Human Development IndexThe HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living.
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World Bank Open DataThe World Bank offers open access to statistical data concerning development in countries across the globe. Search by country or indicator (i.e., economy and growth, energy and mining, urban development) to view regional profiles, charts, maps, and datasets. Use the DataBank tool to compare several countries and indicators and download custom sets. Data is available as CSV files.
Institutional Factors
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Freedom HouseMeasures various indices of political freedom around the world. Separate reports on democracy, press freedom, and internet freedom are also available.
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Polity V Political Regime Characteristics and TransitionsAnnual Polity scores have been plotted for each of the 167 countries currently covered by the Polity V data series for the period 1800-2018.
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Political Handbook of the WorldTimely and thorough coverage of political controversies and political parties.
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Fragile States IndexCombines political, economic and social indicators to measure the fragility of nations around the world, 2006-present.
Electoral Systems
The Electoral System Design Database is comprised of various reviews of the electoral legislation of countries from around the world. The database research was sourced from national legal documents from different sources, including the official web portals of governments, regional organizations that work in the area of democracy and electoral processes, and research institutes specialized in the area of elections and politics in general.
The Electoral Systems Encyclopedia topic focuses on the design, mechanisms, and effects of different electoral systems on national, local and supranational levels. It identifies, describes and classifies 12 distinct electoral systems and discusses their relationship with the larger institutional framework as well as their impact on administrative issues.
The CSES is a collaborative program of research among election study teams from around the world. Participating countries and provinces include a common module of survey questions in their post-election studies. The resulting data are deposited along with voting, demographic, district and macro/electoral system variables.
The PARLINE database contains information on the structure and working methods of 270 parliamentary chambers in all of the 193 countries where a national legislature exists.
Information on national elections around the world, subnational elections of high interest,
political parties and candidates, referendum provisions, news on election-related laws and developments, political institutions and electoral systems, election results and voter turnout.
Executive Styles
The world's constitutions to read, search, and compare.
Lists presidential, parliamentary, semipresidential, monarchical, and other regimes.
Cultural Factors
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World Values SurveyA global network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life, led by an international team of scholars and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
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Pew Research CenterThe Pew Research Center studies public attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. The Center's main purpose is to serve as a forum for ideas on the media and public policy through its research.
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AfrobarometerAfrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy, and society.
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Arab BarometerThe largest repository of publicly available data on citizens' views in the Middle East and North Africa.
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Asian BarometerThe ABS is an applied research program that aims to gauge public opinion across Asia on issues such as political values, democracy, and governance.
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European Social SurveyThe European Social Survey (ESS) is an academically driven cross-national survey that has been conducted across Europe since its establishment in 2001.
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LatinobarómetroLatinobarómetro is an annual public opinion survey that involves some 20,000 interviews in 18 Latin American countries, representing more than 600 million inhabitants.
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V-Dem Civil Society IndicatorsCivil society participation index appears as an indicator in the V-Dem graphic tool.
Civil Society
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POLS 250 Course GuideThis page contains numerous sources for measuring civil society in countries around the world (especially in the tab labelled "Country Research and Datasets)."
