The Autocratic Ruling Parties Dataset: Origins, Durability, and Death

Abstract

How do autocratic ruling parties gain power? What predicts their durability and how they fall? This article introduces the Autocratic Ruling Parties Dataset, the first comprehensive data set on the founding origins, modes of gaining and losing power, ruling tenures, and other characteristics of autocratic ruling parties. It covers all ruling parties in the world from 1940 to 2015. Contrary to common assumptions, most ruling parties are not created by sitting dictators, but follow a range of paths to power that influence their style and duration of rule. To illustrate the data’s uses, the article confirms that ruling parties stabilize autocracies. Further, parties’ origins and histories matter, with revolutionary and foreign-imposed parties the most durable and parties empowered through elections the least durable. By recognizing ruling parties’ heterogeneity, histories, and potential autonomy from individual dictators, the data can contribute to open questions on autocratic politics, regime stability, and democratization.

The Myth of the Benevolent Autocrat? Internal Constraints, External Constraints, and Economic Development in Autocracies

“…4 On the other hand the fact that many autocracies, such as Iran or Côte dIvoire, have many parties represented in the cabinet may come as a surprise. Research on authoritarian countries tends to assume that one party controls the government, which is encapsulated by the term "single-party" regimes (Geddes et al 2014;Miller 2019). hand corner, we see that the average age of cabinet members in East Germany increased dramatically over the period, while the age for cabinet members in West Germany stayed fairly constant.…”

All Power to the Party! The Sources of Ruling Party Strength in Authoritarian Regimes

“…The sample used in this study comes from the Autocratic Ruling Parties Dataset (ARPD) developed by Michael Miller (2020), which includes all autocratic ruling parties that were in power between 1940 and 2015. Autocracy is defined using Boix et al's (2013) binary measure, and ruling party is defined as a political party that is either the supreme ruling power or is used as a significant vehicle of power by the regime and is clearly pre-eminent among all parties.…”

“…The other approach considers party strength as a product of sitting dictators’ strategic projects, empowered or debilitated to serve the rulers’ needs (Reuter and Remington, 2009; Reuter, 2017; Svolik, 2012). This approach ignores the fact that over 60 per cent of authoritarian parties were not created by incumbent dictators but were founded to seize power through revolution, independence movement or election (Miller, 2020: 758). Thus, despite important strengths, neither approach gives a complete account of the diverse strategic environments in which political elites make party-building decisions.…”

Who Governs? A New Global Dataset on Members of Cabinets

“…On the other hand, the fact that many autocracies, such as Iran or Côte d'Ivoire, have many parties represented in the cabinet may come as a surprise. Research on authoritarian countries tends to assume that one party controls the government, which is encapsulated by the term "singleparty" regimes (Geddes, Wright, and Frantz 2014;Miller 2020). Figure 6 highlights four subfields, where our data is of particular relevance.…”