Openness of Executive Recruitment. Polity IV.
| Quick info | |
|---|---|
| Data type | Numeric |
| Scale | Multinomial |
| Value labels |
|
| Technical name | regime_polity_xropen |
| Category | Polity |
| Label | Openness of Executive Recruitment |
| Related indicators | |
Openness of Executive Recruitment: Recruitment of the chief executive is "open" to the extent that all the politically active population has an opportunity, in principle, to attain the position through a regularized process.
Coding rules
If power transfers are coded Unregulated (1) in the Regulation of Executive
Recruitment (variable 3.1), or involve a transition to/from Unregulated, Openness is coded 0.
Four categories are used:
(1) Closed: Chief executives are determined by hereditary succession, e.g. kings, emperors, beys, emirs, etc. who assume executive powers by right of descent. An executive selected by other means may proclaim himself a monarch but the polity he governs is not
coded "closed" unless a relative actually succeeds him as ruler.
(2) Dual Executive–Designation: Hereditary succession plus executive or court selection of
an effective chief minister.
(3) Dual Executive–Election: Hereditary succession plus electoral selection of an effective
chief minister.
(4) Open: Chief executives are chosen by elite designation, competitive election, or
transitional arrangements between designation and election.
Some examples may clarify the coding scheme outlined above. The Soviet Union's
(XRREG/XRCOMP/XROPEN) profile on these variables, since the accession of Khrushchev, is
Designational/Selection/Open. Victorian Britain's profile was Regulated/Transitional/Dual
Executive–Election, whereas contemporary Britain, along with other modern democracies, is coded Regulated/Election/Open. The polities of leaders who seize power by force are coded Unregulated,
but there is a recurring impulse among such leaders to regularize the process of succession,
usually by relying on some form of selection. A less common variant, as in modern Iran and
Nicaragua under the Somozas, is one in which a Caesaristic leader attempts to establish the
principle of hereditary succession. Polity codes all such attempts at regularizing succession as Transitional (under Regulation, variable 3.1) until the first chief executive chosen under the new rules takes office.</br>
A translation of the conceptualizations of executive recruitment used in Polity IV into the component coding scheme outlined above is presented in Table 3.1 (Marshall et al 2017).
Bibliographic info
Citation: Marshall, Monty G., Ted Robert Gurr, and Keith Jaggers. 2017. Dataset Users’ Manual. Polity IV Project. Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2016. Center for Systemic Peace. [1].
Related publications: related publications
Misc
Project manager(s): project managers
Data release: data release
Revisions: revisions
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