WhoGov Dataset

The WhoGov dataset is described in our article: Nyrup, Jacob and Stuart Bramwell. 2020. Who Governs? A New Global Dataset on Members of Cabinets, American Political Science Review, 114(4), 1366-1374. WhoGov won the 2021 Lijphart/Przeworski/Verba award for best dataset in comparative politics.

The dataset enables researchers to take a new approach to studying governing elites in autocracies and democracies. We provide bibliographic information, such as gender and party affiliation, on cabinet members in July every year in the period 1966-2023 in all countries with a population of more than 400,000 citizens. In total, the dataset contains data on 58,670 cabinet members in 177 countries, adding up to 9,153 country-years.

WhoGov makes it possible to answer questions such as; what is the share of female cabinet members globally, which type of regime has the highest cabinet turnover, and have cabinets increased in size over time? And many others. The dataset is highly flexible and can be used to calculate countless variables of interest, including the number of female ministers, ministerial experience, cabinet turnover and cabinet size at the country-year level.

The team is continuously working on updating the data with more years and more variables. We released version 3 of the dataset in July 2024 which covers all countries up to 2023. Furthermore, a team based at the University of Oslo are working on the Paths to Power project which will expand the dataset with variables on social background, education and occupation.

We are hosting a WhoGov workshop on the 29-30th of August 2024 at University of Oslo. The deadline for applying for the workshop this summer has passed, but we expect to host a new workshop in 2025. 

For enquiries or if you identify any errors, contact: whogov@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.