Updated data on institutions and elections 1960–2012: presenting the IAEP dataset version 2.0

This article presents an updated version of the Institutions and Elections Project (IAEP) dataset. The dataset comprises information on 107 de jure institutional provisions, and 16 variables related to electoral procedures and electoral events, for 170 countries in the period 1960–2012. The dataset is one of the most encompassing datasets on global institutional variation that explicitly codes de jure formal institutions. This article presents the dataset and compares it with existing datasets on political institutions, highlighting how the IAEP’s focus on disaggregated de jure institutions complements existing datasets that combine de facto and de jure elements. We illustrate the potential uses of the data by constructing indices that capture institutional dimensions beyond the standard democracy–autocracy dimension, and that represent different ways of using the data for index construction. Finally, we illustrate potential applications by conducting a short replication and expansion of a recent study of democracy and civil war onset.