Dictators and their Subordinates: A New Dataset on Elites in Autocracies

• In Event: The Authoriarian Toolkit

Abstract

Which countries have the least stable cabinets? Do dictators survive longer in office if they purge cabinet ministers after taking power? Why do some dictators appoint female ministers? And when does cabinet instability result in political violence? This article presents a new data set on cabinets in all countries that have been authoritarian at some point since 1945. The data set contains the full list of cabinets ministers and biographic data on these ministers in 143 countries in the period from 1966 to 2016. In total, the dataset includes 4,165 authoritarian country years and 1,942 country years, where the country has democratized. The dataset represents the most comprehensive data on elites in authoritarian countries. This new data can help researchers answer empirical questions, where the current data used is insufficient. After comparing our data set to other similar data sets, we present how the data is created and variables, which can be created from the data. Furthermore, we show how the new data set can be used to answer the questions posed in the beginning of the abstract.

Authors

• Jacob Nyrup, Nuffield College, University of Oxford

• Stuart Bramwell