Polity5

Summary

The Polity5 Project, managed by the Center for Systemic Peace (CSP), is a research effort focused on analyzing political regimes and their transitions, particularly from autocratic to democratic forms.

Tables In IFs

Variable	Definition	Ext Source Def	Last IFs Update	Source in Name	UsedInPreprocessor	UsedInPreprocessorFileName
PolityAutoc	Polity project's measure of autocracy (0=low; 10=high)	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	10/4/2020	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017; autoc	1	SOCIOPOL
PolityCombined	Polity project's combined measure (Democracy-Autocracy + 10  (0=low; 20=high)	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	3/17/2021	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017, polity2	0
PolityDemoc	Polity project's measure of democracy (0=low; 10=high)	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	10/4/2020	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017, democ	1	SOCIOPOL
PolityDurable	Polity project's measure of regime durability	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	10/4/2020	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017, durable	0
PolityExecConstrain	Polity project's measure of executive constraints (1=unlimited; 7=parity/subord)	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	10/4/2020	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017, xconst	0
PolityExecRecruitComp	Polity project's measure of exec recruit competition (0=unregulated; 3=election)	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	10/4/2020	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017, xrcomp	0
PolityExecRecruitOpen	Polity project's measure of exec recruit openness (0=unregulated; 4=open)	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	10/4/2020	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017, xropen	0
PolityExecRecruitRegu	Polity project's measure of exec recruit regulation (1=unregulated; 3=regulated)	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	10/4/2020	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017, xrreg	0
PolityParticCompet	Polity project's measure of participation competitiveness (1=suppressed; 5=competitive)	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	10/4/2020	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017, parcomp	0
PolityParticRegulate	Polity project's measure of participation regulation (1=unregulated; 5=institutionalized)	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017	10/4/2020	Polity IV Annual Time-Series 1800-2017, parreg	0

Data Pulling Instructions

1. The data for Polity IV is hosted by the Center for Systemic Peace and can be found at http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscrdata.html
2. Download series from:
   
3. Series to be Imported: There are ten series from Polity IV that need to be imported into IFs:
   1. PolityAutoc: This is the autocracy score from Polity IV. It is a scale from 1-10, with negative values that indicate transitional periods (these negative numbers should be removed when importing into IFs).
   2. PolityDemoc: This is the democracy score from Polity IV. It is a scale from 1-10, with negative values that indicate transitional periods (these negative numbers should be removed when importing into IFs).
   3. PolityCombined: This is the combined score from Polity IV, It is a scale from -10 to 10 (democracy score minus autocracy score), with lower negative values that indicate transitional periods (these negative numbers should be removed when importing into IFs). For the purposes of importing into IFs, this series should be transformed into a 0-20 scale, simply by adding 10 to the score.
   4. PolityDurable: This is the regime durability measure, and it is the number of years since a regime change, with negative values that indicate transitional periods (these negative numbers should be removed when importing into IFs).
   5. PolityExecConstrain: This is a categorical variable measuring the constraints on executive power. It is a scale from 1-7, with negative values indicating transitional periods (these negative numbers whould be removed when importing into IFs).
   6. PolityExecRecruitOpen: This is a categorical variable measuring the openness of executive recruitment. It is a scale from 1-4, with negative numbers indicating transitional periods (these negative numbers should be removed when importing into IFs)
   7. PolityExecRecruitComp: This is a categorical variable measuring how competitive executive recruitment is in a country. It is a scale from 1-3, with negative numbers indicating transitional periods (these negative numbers should be removed when importing into IFs).
   8. PolityExecRecruitRegu: This is a categorical variable measuring the regulation of executive recruitment in a country. It is a scale from 1-3, with negative numbers indicating transitional periods (these negative numbers should be removed when importing into IFs).
   9. PolityParticCompet: This is a categorical variable measuring the competitiveness of political participation. It is a scale from 0-5, with negative numbers indicating transitional periods (these negative numbers should be removed when importing into IFs).
   10. PolityParticRegulate: This is a categorical variable measuring the regulation of political participation in a country. It is a scale from 1-5, with negative numbers indicating transitional periods (these negative numbers should be removed when importing into IFs).
   11. PolityPartialAutocCat
   12. PolityPartialAutocCat2
   13. PolityPartialDemocCat
   14. PolityPartialDemocCat2

Data Notes

Issues in the Data and Their Solutions

1. Historical Data: There is historical data for Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, the USSR, Korea, and Czechoslovakia. These countries map to their modern counterparts, Serbia, Russia, South Korea, and the Czech Republic, respectively. The historical data for countries that were split into north and south and then unified does not map to any IFs countries.
2. Country Concordance: The Polity IV data has multiple three letter codes for the same countries, and the concordance table needs to be adjusted to account for that. Czech Republic maps to both CZR and CZE. Ethiopia maps to both ETH and ETI. Russian Federation maps to both RUS and USR. Sudan maps to both SUD and SDN. Serbia maps to SER, YUG, and YGS, Pakistan maps to both PAK and PKS, Korea maps to KOR and ROK.
3. Issues with pre-processor- For Autocracy and Democracy, Ifs does not use any data for the year 2013 when building the forecasts for the polity score. This, in spite of rebuilding the Base and Historical Base after the data update.