Measures of Democracy 1810-2018

The data contain three different variables, created by Tatu Vanhanen in his long-term research, for each year from 1810 to 2018. The variables in question are political competition, political participation and the index of democratization. The competition variable portrays the electoral success of smaller parties, that is, the percentage of votes gained by the smaller parties in parliamentary and/or presidential elections. The variable is calculated by subtracting from 100 the percentage of votes won by the largest party (the party which wins most votes) in parliamentary elections or by the party of the successful candidate in presidential elections. Depending on their importance, either parliamentary or presidential elections are used in the calculation of the variable, or both elections are used, with weights. If information on the distribution of votes is not available, or if the distribution does not portray the reality accurately, the distribution of parliamentary seats is used instead. If parliament members are elected but political parties are not allowed to take part in elections, it is assumed that one party has taken all votes or seats. In countries where parties are not banned but yet only independent candidates participate in elections, it is assumed that the share of the largest party is not over 30 percent. The political participation variable portrays the voting turnout in each election, and is calculated as the percentage of the total population who actually voted in the election. In the case of indirect elections, only votes cast in the final election are taken into account. If electors have not been elected by citizens, only the number of actual electors is taken into account, which means that the degree of participation drops to the value 0. If an election to choose electors has been held, the participation variable is calculated from the number and distribution of votes in that election. National referendums raise the variable value by five percent and state (regional) referendums by one percent for the year they are held. Referendums can add the degree of participation at maximum by 30 percent a year. The value of the combined degree of participation cannot be higher than 70 percent, even in cases where the sum of participation and referendums would be higher than 70. The index of democratization is formed by multiplying the competition and the participation variables and then dividing the outcome by 100.

该数据集包含由Tatu Vanhanen在其长期研究中创建的三个不同变量，涵盖了自1810年至2018年每年的数据。所涉及的变量包括政治竞争、政治参与及民主化指数。政治竞争变量描绘了小政党的选举成功情况，即小政党在议会及/或总统选举中获得的选票百分比。该变量通过从100%中减去在议会选举中获胜的最大政党（即获得最多选票的政党）或总统选举中获胜候选人的得票百分比来计算。根据其重要性，该变量在计算中可能仅采用议会选举或总统选举，或同时采用两种选举，并赋予相应的权重。若无法获取选票分布信息，或若其分布无法准确反映现实，则使用议会席位的分布来代替。若议会成员虽已选出，但政党不允许参与选举，则假定某一政党获得了所有选票或席位。在政党未遭禁但仅独立候选人参与选举的国家，假定最大政党的得票份额不超过30%。政治参与变量描绘了每场选举的投票率，并计算为实际参与投票的总人口百分比。在间接选举的情况下，仅考虑最终选举中的投票。若选民未由公民选出，则仅考虑实际选民的数目，这意味着参与度降至0。若已举行选举以选择选民，则政治参与变量从该选举的投票数目和分布中计算得出。国家公投将当年该变量的值提高5%，而州（地区）公投提高1%。公投每年最多可将参与度提高30%，但综合参与度值不得高于70%，即便参与度和公投的总和超过70%。民主化指数通过将竞争变量和参与变量相乘，然后除以100来形成。