Introducing the One-Party Membership Dataset: A dataset on party membership in autocracies
| Published date | 01 July 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00223433231155278 |
| Author | Fabio Angiolillo |
| Date | 01 July 2024 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433231155278
Journal of Peace Research
2024, Vol. 61(4) 694 –708
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/00223433231155278
journals.sagepub.com/home/jpr
1225162JPR0010.1177/00223433231155278Journal of Peace ResearchAngiolillo
research-article2023
Special Data Feature
Introducing the One-Party Membership
Dataset: A dataset on party membership
in autocracies
Fabio Angiolillo
Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg
Abstract
Recent literature on autocracies focuses on elite politics to study ruling party stability. I focus on the lowest level of
the ruling party structure, party members, to introduce new data on party-based autocracies. Party members are
unique connectors between ruling party and society, and ruling parties can recur to them for policy enforcement,
political control, co-optation and legitimation to secure power. I present the One-Party Membership Dataset
(OPAMED), a comprehensive dataset on party membership in autocracies, covering 42 ruling parties across
party-based regimes from 1945 to 2020, and introduce two new variables: party size; and party members hip
volatility. The first variable measures the membership-to-population ratio, while the second measures the rate of
co-optation growth from one year to the other. In conclusion, the OPAMED provides a new, flexible and easy-to-use
toolkit on ruling parties in party-based autocracies.
Keywords
autocracy, dataset, party membership, party organization, political party
Introduction
The dictator–society relationship can be a source of
regime threat (Lust-Okar, 2005; Blaydes, 2010; Paine,
2020). Recent literature shows that party-based autocra-
cies are more durable than other authoritarian regimes
(Geddes, Wright & Frantz, 2014), which is widely
explained by the crucial role ruling parties have for
elite-leader bargaining power (Gandhi & Przeworski,
2007; Magaloni & Kricheli, 2010; Levitsky & Way,
2012; Svolik, 2012; Miller, 2020; Meng, 2021; Meng
& Paine, 2022). However, at the bottom of ruling par-
ties’ hierarchy there are party members, another unique
feature of party-based autocracies and also the closest
hierarchical level to society. Ruling parties can use party
members to secure and strengthen their regime while
preventing bottom-up threats in at least three ways: pol-
icy enforcement and political control; co-optation of
social groups; and securing popular legitimacy.
Multiple studies show the importance of party mem-
bership, drawing from single or small-n cases (Rigby,
1968; Koss, 2018; Grzymala-Busse, 2002; Blaydes,
2020). However, previous literature is fragmented and
prevents extensive comparative studies on whether party
members are a source of party-based durability and
whether there are different party membership strategies
that ruling parties use to secure power and political con-
trol, among others. A wealth of literature shows that
ruling parties have mobilized, demobilized and purged
their masses, pointing at widely different party–society
relationships. Building on previous findings, I propose
that party memberships have different functions depend-
ing on the ruling party’s challenges and needs to stabilize
its relationship with society and, collecting data from a
wealth of sources, I present the One-Party Membership
Dataset (OPAMED), a new dataset on party member-
ship in party-based autocracies.
The OPAMED contributes to the current literature
in at least four ways. First, it expands our knowledge
about ruling parties’ organizational structures in
Corresponding author:
fabio.angiolillo@gu.se
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