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Beyond Democracy-Dictatorship Measures : A New Framework Capturing Executive Bases of Power, 1789-2016

Teorell, Jan LU orcid and Lindberg, Staffan I. LU (2019) In Perspectives on Politics 17(1). p.66-84
Abstract

We attempt to integrate the literatures on authoritarian regime types and democratic forms of government. We propose a theoretical framework of five dimensions of executive appointment and dismissal that can be applied in both more democratic and more authoritarian regimes: the hereditary, military, ruling party, direct election, and confidence dimensions, respectively. Relying on the Varieties of Democracy data, we provide measures of these five dimensions for 3,937 individual heads of state and 2,874 heads of government from 192 countries across the globe from 1789 to the present. After presenting descriptive evidence of their prevalence, variation, and relationship to extant regime typologies, a set of exploratory probes gauge the... (More)

We attempt to integrate the literatures on authoritarian regime types and democratic forms of government. We propose a theoretical framework of five dimensions of executive appointment and dismissal that can be applied in both more democratic and more authoritarian regimes: the hereditary, military, ruling party, direct election, and confidence dimensions, respectively. Relying on the Varieties of Democracy data, we provide measures of these five dimensions for 3,937 individual heads of state and 2,874 heads of government from 192 countries across the globe from 1789 to the present. After presenting descriptive evidence of their prevalence, variation, and relationship to extant regime typologies, a set of exploratory probes gauge the extent to which the five dimensions can predict levels of repression, corruption, and executive survival, controlling for aspects of democracy. This leads to generation of a set of original hypotheses that we hope can serve as building blocks for explanatory theory. We conclude by discussing some limitations of these novel data.

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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Perspectives on Politics
volume
17
issue
1
pages
19 pages
publisher
Cambridge University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85061497849
ISSN
1537-5927
DOI
10.1017/S1537592718002098
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9ad2a0d3-ea80-44ae-b7d0-8397ede8027d
date added to LUP
2019-02-21 08:45:00
date last changed
2022-04-25 21:15:57
@article{9ad2a0d3-ea80-44ae-b7d0-8397ede8027d,
  abstract     = {{<p>We attempt to integrate the literatures on authoritarian regime types and democratic forms of government. We propose a theoretical framework of five dimensions of executive appointment and dismissal that can be applied in both more democratic and more authoritarian regimes: the hereditary, military, ruling party, direct election, and confidence dimensions, respectively. Relying on the Varieties of Democracy data, we provide measures of these five dimensions for 3,937 individual heads of state and 2,874 heads of government from 192 countries across the globe from 1789 to the present. After presenting descriptive evidence of their prevalence, variation, and relationship to extant regime typologies, a set of exploratory probes gauge the extent to which the five dimensions can predict levels of repression, corruption, and executive survival, controlling for aspects of democracy. This leads to generation of a set of original hypotheses that we hope can serve as building blocks for explanatory theory. We conclude by discussing some limitations of these novel data.</p>}},
  author       = {{Teorell, Jan and Lindberg, Staffan I.}},
  issn         = {{1537-5927}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{66--84}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  series       = {{Perspectives on Politics}},
  title        = {{Beyond Democracy-Dictatorship Measures : A New Framework Capturing Executive Bases of Power, 1789-2016}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/102649070/Teorell_Beyond_Democracy_Structure_of_executive_PoP_final_accepted_pdf.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/S1537592718002098}},
  volume       = {{17}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}