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

The Leaders Global 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 Leaders Global 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, Leaders Global 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, Leaders Global might be extended to some smaller countries beyond V-Dem’s country sample.