Leaders Global: Party affiliations of leaders (HoS/HoG) in 183 countries, 1880–2020

The <i>Leaders Global</i> dataset compiles information about party affiliations of the Head of State (HoS) and the Head of Government (HoG) in 183 countries from 1880 to 2020. Cross-comparability of data on political parties is enhanced by harmonizing party names and codes via Party Facts (Döring and Regel 2019). The aim of <i>Leaders Global</i> is to provide an encompassing, consistent and harmonized dataset about Head of States and Head of Governments and their party affiliation. In a joint effort, <i>Leaders Global</i> was also used as the source for the HoS and HoG party affiliation variables of the Varieties of Democracy project (V-Dem) which will be released with V-Dem Version 11 in Spring 2021. In the future, <i>Leaders Global</i> might be extended to some smaller countries beyond V-Dem’s country sample.