Political Regimes of the World Database

The global dataset covers the time period 1800-2016, with yearly observations for all countries that have been independent at any point in time since WWII. Within the category of democracies, we first make a distinction between republics and monarchies. Republics are then classified into presidential, semi-presidential, and parliamentary systems. Within the category of monarchies, most systems are parliamentary but a few countries are conferred to the category semi-monarchies. Autocratic countries are classified into the following main categories: absolute monarchy, military rule, party-based rule, personalist rule, and oligarchy. Within the categories party-based rule and oligarchy a number of subcategories are also identified.