Introduction to Comparative Politics: Governance

"Classification 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. Coverage: 202 countries, from 1946 or year of independence to 2008."

These researchers are collecting data on the characteristics of constitutions.

Database of constitutions from around the world.

Compiles provisions related to gender from constitutions around the world in searchable database.

Contains 125 variables primarily measuring electoral rules and the political system.

Strength of political parties by ideology in capitalist democracies.

Analyzes stability risks of 177 countries against twelve social, economic, and political risks.

Publishes Freedom in the World and Freedom of the Press, annually assessing civil liberties and media independence in 200 countries and territories.

Macro time series, micro time series, government finance, and social indicators including ethnic fractionalization, party fractionalization, regime changes, and fixed factors. 1960-99. Easterly and Yu.

Ranks 144 countries against 23 indicators ranging from military expenditure to respect for human rights.

Measures 123 countries according to measures under categories such as rule of law, openness, market characteristics, security of transactions, social characteristics.

Query and compare data on the structure of 262 parliamentary chambers in all 187 countries with a national legislature.

Measures parties positions on European integration, ideology, and policy.

The project is based on quantitative content analyses of parties’ election programs from more than 50 countries covering all free, democratic elections since 1945.

Latin American party systems and democracy and democratization.

Measures party system fragmentation and disproportionality.

Variety of useful shared datasets covering regime types, elections, civil liberties, and much more.

Measures political and economic risk associated with a country.

Measures state-sanctioned torture, killings, disappearances, and imprisonment; yearly report (1976-2006) developed by Mark Gibney at University of North Carolina.

Measures regime characteristics (democracy/autocracy) for all states over 500,000 from 1800 to 2008.

Lists of heads of state and government of all countries and territories back to 1700.

The Corruption Perceptions Index, Bribe Payers Index, and Global Corruption Barometer assess attitudes toward and perceived levels of corruption around the world.

Data on historical roll-call voting of legislatures from around the world.

World Audit (non-profit organization) examines the state of public corruption and human rights in 150 nations.

140+ governance datasets from the World Bank.

Aggregated governance indicators for 213 countries, 1996-2010, from the World Bank.