Chief executive of the government is chosen in multi-party elections by country

Data by Lührmann et al. (2018) and V-Dem. "Chief executive" is defined here as the head of state or the head of government, whoever has more power over the appointment and dismissal of cabinet ministers.

Countries reporting
173
Highest
1
Angola
Lowest
0
Vatican
Median
1
Years covered
237
1789–2025
Data points
30,307

What the numbers show

Chief executive of the government is chosen in multi-party elections is currently reported for 173 countries. The highest value is 1 in Angola; the lowest is 0 in Vatican.

The median across all reporting countries is 1, and the mean is 0.7977.

Chief executive of the government is chosen in multi-party elections: full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 Angola 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Albania 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Argentina 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Armenia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Australia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Austria 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Azerbaijan 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Burundi 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Belgium 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Benin 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Bulgaria 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Bolivia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Brazil 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Barbados 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Bhutan 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Botswana 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Central African Republic 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Canada 1 2025 unchanged rising
1 Switzerland 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Chile 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Cote d'Ivoire 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Cameroon 1 2025 unchanged flat
1 Democratic Republic of Congo 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Congo 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Colombia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Comoros 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Cape Verde 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Costa Rica 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Cyprus 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Czechia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Germany 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Djibouti 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Denmark 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Dominican Republic 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Algeria 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Ecuador 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Egypt 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Spain 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Estonia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Ethiopia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Finland 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Fiji 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 France 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Gabon 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 United Kingdom 1 2025 unchanged flat
1 Georgia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Ghana 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Gambia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Equatorial Guinea 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Greece 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Guatemala 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Guyana 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Honduras 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Croatia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Hungary 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Indonesia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 India 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Iran 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Iraq 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Iceland 1 2025 unchanged rising
1 Israel 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Italy 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Jamaica 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Japan 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Kazakhstan 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Kenya 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Kyrgyzstan 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Cambodia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 South Korea 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Lebanon 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Liberia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Sri Lanka 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Lesotho 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Lithuania 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Latvia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Moldova 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Maldives 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Mexico 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 North Macedonia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Montenegro 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Mongolia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Mozambique 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Mauritania 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Mauritius 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Malawi 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Malaysia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Namibia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Nigeria 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Nicaragua 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Netherlands 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Norway 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Nepal 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 New Zealand 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Pakistan 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Panama 1 2025 unchanged rising
1 Peru 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Philippines 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Papua New Guinea 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Poland 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Portugal 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Paraguay 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Romania 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Russia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Rwanda 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Senegal 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Singapore 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Solomon Islands 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Sierra Leone 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 El Salvador 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Serbia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Sao Tome and Principe 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Suriname 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Slovakia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Slovenia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Sweden 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Seychelles 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Chad 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Togo 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Thailand 1 2025 volatile
1 Tajikistan 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Turkmenistan 1 2025 volatile
1 East Timor 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Trinidad and Tobago 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Tunisia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Turkey 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Tanzania 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Uganda 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Ukraine 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Uruguay 1 2025 unchanged rising
1 United States 1 2025 unchanged rising
1 Uzbekistan 1 2025 volatile
1 Venezuela 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Vanuatu 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 South Africa 1 2025 unchanged rising
1 Zambia 1 2025 unchanged volatile
1 Zimbabwe 1 2025 unchanged rising
1 Taiwan 1 2025 unchanged volatile
142 Afghanistan 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 United Arab Emirates 0 2025 flat
142 Burkina Faso 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Bangladesh 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Bahrain 0 2025 flat
142 Belarus 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 China 0 2025 volatile
142 Cuba 0 2025 volatile
142 Eritrea 0 2025 flat
142 Guinea 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Guinea-Bissau 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Hong Kong 0 2025 flat
142 Haiti 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Jordan 0 2025 volatile
142 Kuwait 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Laos 0 2025 volatile
142 Libya 0 2025 volatile
142 Morocco 0 2025 flat
142 Madagascar 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Mali 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Myanmar 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Niger 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Oman 0 2025 flat
142 North Korea 0 2025 flat
142 Palestine 0 1948 flat
142 Qatar 0 2025 flat
142 Saudi Arabia 0 2025 flat
142 Sudan 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Somalia 0 2025 volatile
142 South Sudan 0 2025 volatile
142 Eswatini 0 2025 flat
142 Syria 0 2025 volatile
142 Vietnam 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Yemen 0 2025 down 100.0% volatile
142 Vatican 0 1861 flat

About this data

Indicator
Chief executive of the government is chosen in multi-party elections
Source
V-Dem (2026) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
176 places, 30,307 data points, 1789–2025
Last refreshed

Data by Lührmann et al. (2018) and V-Dem. "Chief executive" is defined here as the head of state or the head of government, whoever has more power over the appointment and dismissal of cabinet ministers.