The current database contains information about cabinet composition and party system development in 17 Asian states that, scoring 6 or higher in the Polity V index (Marshall and Gurr 2021), can be considered democratic until the end of 2020.
In terms of governments, the database contains information on cabinet duration (i.e. dates of formation and termination), the names of the various ministerial offices as well as of the people [1] appointed to occupy them, and the partisan affiliation of each minister at the time a particular cabinet is appointed.
In accordance with the party government literature, the database records changes of government when:
(1) there is a change in the partisan composition of the government coalition (i.e., when representatives of one or more parties leave the coalition government or join the coalition government); (2) the prime minister leaves his/her office, whether they are obliged to do so because of a no confidence vote or they decide to resign for other reasons; and (3) parliamentary elections are held, even in cases where there is no resulting change in the partisan composition of the cabinet (Müller and Strøm, 2000).
In all these cases, the database only records the partisan composition of cabinets at the time of appointment. Thus, it is important to note here that if a party leaves a government and new ministers are not appointed on the same or the following day, then these ministerial replacements are not included in the “new” cabinet. Similarly, simple government reshuffles are not recorded.
In case of electoral coalitions, the database also displays information about the partisan affiliation of the ministers belonging to the different parties within the coalition. In those instances when two or more parties merged to form a new one, the partisan affiliation of the ministers belonging to the parties merged is also shown.
In terms of party systems, and closely following the party politics literature (Casal Bértoa and Enyedi, 2021, 2022; Mainwaring and Scully, 1995; Sartori, 1976), the database contains operationalisations and measurements for seven different classic indicators: namely, party system closure, party institutionalisation, effective number of parties, and electoral disproportionality.[2]
All in all the database covers 73 years,[3] 24 different historical political regimes (see Appendix),[4] 137 elections,[5] and 236 cases of government formation.[6]
Sources
General
- Woldendorp, J., Keman, H., and Budge, I. (2000): Party government in 48 democracies (1945–1998), London: Kluwer
- Political Data Yearbook Interactive (2021). Available at: http://www.politicaldatayearbook.com.
- The Economist Intelligence Unit (various years). Available at: eiu.com
- Keesing’s Record of World Events (various years). London: Longman
Other
In all cases, the data presented in this database have been also cross-checked with information provided by country experts (see acknowledgments) and other sources on the World Wide Web.
All of the party system indicators have been calculated by us, taking into consideration electoral results found in:
- Nohlen, D., Grotz, F. and Hartmann, C. (2001): Elections in Asia and the Pacific: A Data Handbook – Volume I: Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. Baden-Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Nohlen, D., Grotz, F. and Hartmann, C. (2001): Elections in Asia and the Pacific: A Data Handbook – Volume II: South East Asia, East Asia, and the South Pacific. Baden-Oxford: Oxford University Press.
However, the following sources should also be acknowledged:
- Bormann, N.-C. and Golder, M. (2013): “Democratic Electoral Systems Around the World”, Electoral Studies, v. 32, n. 2, pp. 360-369
- Gallagher, M. (2021): Election Indices Dataset. Available at http://www.tcd.ie/Political_Science/staff/michael_gallagher/ElSystems/index.php
Acknowledgements
We would like to gratefully acknowledge the help received in the collection of data on Asian cabinet formation from Aashiyana Adhikari, Filippo Boni, Rui Feijo, Rajni Gamage, May Lee, Bibek Luitel, Albertus Schoeman, Dishil Shrimankar and Jungmin Son. We are also very thankful to Manuel Hernández and Anna M. Bagaini, who helped us with the re-organization of data into a more manageable and structured form, pointing to possible lacunas, errors, etc. We are also indebted to Julio de la Iglesia Trinidad and his team (desafiodigital.es) who helped us to design this website. Finally, we would like to acknowledge Elaine Housby’s help with the language editing. We could not have completed the database without their enormous help and support. We are, of course, the only one to be blamed for any eventual errors.
How to cite the datasets:
1. For those using data on party system closure, party institutionalisation, effective number of parties, and electoral disproportionality, please use the following citation:
Casal Bértoa, F. and Lee, D.S. (2021): Database on WHO GOVERNS in Asia, PSGo. Available at: whogovernsasia.com
2. For those using data on the composition of Indonesian, Japanese, Malaysian, Myanmarese, Philippine, South Korean, Taiwanese, Timorese and Thai cabinets, please use the following citation:
Lee, D. and Casal Bértoa, F. (2021): Dataset on Eastern and South-East Asian governments, 1947-2020. Available at www.whogovernsasia.com
3. For those using data on the composition of Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Indian, Iraqi, Israeli, Kyrgyz, Lebanese, Mongolian, Nepalese, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, and Syrian cabinets, please use the following citation:
Adeney, K., Lee, D. and Casal Bértoa, F. (2021): Dataset on Central and South Asian governments, and the Middle East, 1947-2020. Available at www.whogovernsasia.com.
[1] Senior, but not junior (i.e. deputy), ministers are recorded.
[2] Time-series (1947-2020) data files for each indicator will be made available after the book based on the project is published.
[3] The number of years per country taken into account varies between just 2 (i.e. Bangladesh I) and almost 70 (i.e. Japan).
[4] The number of political regimes taken into account varies between just 1 (e.g. Japan or India) and 3 (i.e. Pakistan).
[5] The number of electoral cycles considered goes from 1 (Bangladesh I, Bhutan, Nepal I, and Pakistan I) to 24 (Japan).
[6] The number of cabinets per country included in the dataset varies between 1 (Bangladesh I, Bhutan, Myanmar II, and Nepal I) and 38 (India).