Seats and Votes, 1950-1995
Codebook
August 2002 Version
Michael D. McDonald
Silvia M. Mendes
Aida Paskeviciute
Department of Political Science
Binghamton University (SUNY)
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
UNITED STATES
Universidade do Minho
Escola de Economia e Gestão
Dept. de Gestão e Adm. Pública
Gualtar
4710 Braga
PORTUGAL
Department of Political Science
Binghamton University (SUNY)
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
UNITED STATES
mdmcd@binghamton.edu
smendes@eeg.uminho.pt
bj93383@binghamton.edu
1
Data Set Description
The data report on the votes and seats won by parties in 25 countries. The time period covers a
country’s first free election after 1950 through any election in 1998. Cases are ordered by party by
country by election.
Number of Cases
N = 3,147. This represents the number of parties reported by our sources to have received votes in
elections during the period from the early 1950s through 1998.
Accuracy Status as of August 2002
Data covering parties that have won at least one parliamentary seat for 21 countries from 1950 through
1995 have been checked on several occasions. All other entries have thus far been checked only
twice. These included:
(1) All data on Greece, Israel, Japan, and Malta.
(2) Data on parties that are recorded as having won zero seats
(3) Data for elections after 1995
Contact McDonald, Mendes, and Paskeviciute by e-mail, if you suspect that an entry is in error.
Sources
We rely on five sources. These are identified here. In the Variable List below, we identify the source
of each variable by a short title provided in parentheses following the source citation. Variables that
are either created or computed as logical or arithmetic derivations of other data are also identified as
such.
Budge, Ian Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Andrea Volkens, Eric Tannenbaum, and Judith Bara. 2001.
Mapping Policy Preferences: Estimates for Parties, Electors, and Governments 1945-1998.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. (source = CMP98)
European Journal of Political Research, annual country political updates (source = EJPR).
Mackie, Thomas T. and Richard Rose. 1991. International Almanac of Electoral History, 3rd ed.
Washington: Congressional Quarterly, Inc. (source = MR)
Volkens, Andrea, Kai-Uwe Schnapp, and Jürgen Lass. 1992. Data Handbook on Election Results and
Seats in the National Parliaments of 26 Contemporary Democracies, 1945-1990. Berlin:
WZB. (source = Volkens et al.)
Woldendorp, Jaap, Hans Keman, and Ian Budge. 2000. Party Government in 48 Democracies (19451998). Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic. (source = WKB)
2
VARIABLE LISTING
Var #1
NATION:
Country name (source = created)
Var #2
NATIONID:
Country numeric code (source = CMP)
Var #3
GOVTSEQ:
Government number (source = WKB)
Var #4
GOVTDATE: Government starting date (source = WKB)
Var #5
PTYNAME:
Party name (source = created)
Var #6
CMPID:
CMP party identification number (source = CMP)
Var #7
MRID:
Mackie & Rose party identification number
(source = Volkens et al, MR, & EJPR)
Var #8
ELECDATE: Election date (source = Volkens et al, MR, & EJPR)
Var #9
ELECSIZE:
Size of the electorate (source = Volkens et al, MR, & EJPR)
Var #10
TURNOUT:
Voter turnout (source = Volkens et al, MR, & EJPR)
Var #11
VALIDVOT: Valid votes cast (source = Volkens et al, MR, & EJPR)
Var #12
PTYVOTES: Party votes (source = Volkens et al, MR, & EJPR)
Var #13
PARLSIZE:
Parliamentary size, lower chamber
(source = Volkens et al, MR, & EJPR)
Var #14
PTYSEATS:
Party seats in parliament (source = Volkens et al, MR, & EJPR)
Var #15
PTYVPCT:
Party vote percentage (source = computed)
Var #16
PTYSPCT:
Party seat percentage (source = computed)
3
VARIABLE DESCRIPTIONS
Var #1
NATION: Country name
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Var #2
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States
NATION: Country numeric code
11
12
13
14
15
21
22
23
31
Var #3
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Belgium
Netherlands
Luxembourg
France
32
33
34
35
41
42
43
51
Italy
Spain
Greece
Portugal
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
United Kingdom
53
61
62
63
64
71
72
99
Ireland
United States
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
Japan
Israel
Malta
GOVTSEQ: Government sequence number
Waldendorp, Keman, & Budge government sequence number
Var #4
GOVTDATE: Government starting date
Year (last two digits), month, and day the government took office.
Var #5
PTYNAME: Party name
Abbreviations to identify a party
Var #6
CMPID: CMP party identification number
Party 3-digit code as used by the CMP
Var #7
MRID: Mackie & Rose party identification number
Party code, as reported in Volkens et al., created by Mackie and Rose
4
Var #8
ELECDATE: Election date
Year (last two digits) and month of the election preceding government formation.
Var #9
ELECSIZE: Size of the electorate
Number of persons of voting age for election preceding government formation.
Var #10
TURNOUT: Voter turnout
Number of persons who turned out to vote in the election preceding government
formation.
Var #11
VALIDVOT: Valid votes cast
Number of persons who cast valid ballots in the election preceding government
formation.
Var #12
PTYVOTES: Party votes
Number of votes cast for the party in the election preceding government
formation.
Var #13
PARLSIZE: Parliamentary size, lower chamber
Number of seats in the national parliament during the government
(Note: in the U.S., where presidential elections are coded, this refers to
the number of electoral college members)
Var #14
PTYSEATS: Party seats in parliament
Number of seats that the party won in the election preceding government
formation.
Var #15
PTYVPCT: Party vote percentage
Computed variable based on party votes and valid votes
Var #16
PTYSPCT: Party seat percentage
Computed variable based on party seats and size of parliament