Meritocracy and Autocratic Power-sharing in 291 Historical Polities

291 historical polities form a panel dataset used to analyze the relationship between meritocracy and autocracy. The data supports a paper by Clair Yang proposing meritocracy as a power-sharing institution in authoritarian regimes. It was last updated on May 14, 2026, in The Journal of Politics Dataverse.

Use Cases

• Testing theoretical models linking meritocracy to autocratic rule based on the paper's formal model.
• Conducting empirical analysis on power-sharing institutions across historical states.
• Performing comparative case studies of absolutist regimes mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• The dataset covers a panel of 291 historical polities, providing a broad empirical base.
• It is associated with a formal model and theoretical framework published in a political science journal.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update date is in the future (2026-05-14).

Provenance

Source

The Journal of Politics Dataverse

Collection Method

Likely compiled from historical case studies and empirical analysis for academic research.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 22:10:34