WH Category
WH Name and Description	IDEA Name	Notes
Ambush	Armed actions	Added to WH in 1978
Armed attack Armed attack (705) an act of violent political conflict carried out by (or on behalf of) an organized group with the object of weakening or destroying the power exercised by another organized group. It is characterized by bloodshed, physical struggle, and the destruction of property. A wide variety of weapons may be used, including guns, explosives (conventional bombs, hand grenades, letter bombs), chemicals, bricks and other primitive hand weapons such as spears, knives or clubs. This category is intended to encompass all organized political violence, although assassinations are coded separately. It excludes all spontaneous violence. Also excluded are activities of organized crime which are not observed to be directly relevant to political cleavages and issues. The target of an armed attack is typically a regime, a government, or a political leader, but it may also be a religious, ethnic, racial, linguistic, or special interest minority. When a government is unable or unwilling to control an insurgency situation by normal sanctions (see below), it may also resort to armed attacks. For the 1968-1982 period, whenever possible armed attacks by governmental and military forces (707) were coded separately from those undertaken by insurgents (706). When it was impossible to determine which side initiated the event, or when a battle or clash was reported, the generic armed attack code (705) was used. All three types were aggregated together in the annual and quarterly series.		combined with 706, 707, 740
Arrest	Arrest and detention	Added to WH in 1978
Assassination	Assassination	combined with 708
Attack by insurgents Armed attacks by insurgents were aggregated together with 705 in the annual and quarterly series. For the 1968-1982 period, whenever possible armed attacks by governmental and military forces (707) were coded separately from those undertaken by insurgents (706). When it was impossible to determine which side initiated the event, or when a battle or clash was reported, the generic armed attack code (705) was used. All three types were aggregated together in the annual and quarterly series.	Armed actions	combined with 705, 707, 740 IDEA distinguishes among actors in a post-coding procedure.
Attack by the state When a government is unable or unwilling to control an insurgency situation by normal sanctions it may also resort to armed attacks. For the 1968-1982 period, whenever possible armed attacks by governmental and military forces (707) were coded separately from those undertaken by insurgents (706). When it was impossible to determine which side initiated the event, or when a battle or clash was reported, the generic armed attack code (705) was used. All three types were aggregated together in the annual and quarterly series. Armed attacks by governmental and military forces (707) were aggregated together with 705 in the annual and quarterly series.		Combined with 705, 706, 740 IDEA distinguishes among actors in a post-coding procedure.
Bombing		Added to WH in 1978. Combined with705, 706, 707. IDEA distinguishes among armed actions as such (223), artillery attack (2235), suicide bombing (2236), mine explosion (2237), vehicle bombing (2238), and missle attack (2239)
By-election Also coded were by-elections (723), but these were not aggregated into the total for elections in the annual and quarterly series file.	Elect representative	Combined with 714, 721, 722, 724, 725 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Deaths from domestic violence Deaths from domestic political violence (713) were coded as an event type for the 1948-1967 period, but were treated as an attribute of other events for the 1968-1982 period. Hence, there are no event type 713's during the last 10 years in the daily events file; death reports appear instead as v26. Deaths from domestic political violence occur largely in conjunction with armed attacks and riots. Foreign deaths, except in Lebanon and South Vietnam, are excluded. Also excluded are political executions, deaths in enemy prisons, Deaths in international war and border clashes, assassination victims, and homicide victims. Sources, particularly the New York Times index, make both daily reports and periodic cumulative summaries of deaths during periods of prolonged civil violence. Moreover, these reports contain inconsistencies between time periods covered and total magnitudes reported. Annual and quarterly aggregates of deaths taken directly from the daily events file tend to understate total deaths in countries with extensive violence. For this reason, additional research was conducted into the sources used for the daily events file but with concentration upon summary reports of deaths. These data have been employed to adjust the annual and quarterly series for a few countries. For a list of these, see note on clustering the daily events for the annual and quarterly series. Attributes of events for the 1968-1982 period and several attributes for events of mass political activity were coded whenever possible. Because of the nature of the sources and because we did not have unlimited funding, we could not be as thorough in the collection of these data as we would have liked. Missing data among the attribute variables are greater than ideal. For events of mass political activity (types 700-712), attribute data were collected for target or purpose, issue, number of participants, number of injuries, extent of damage, duration of event, location of event, extent of event, number of deaths, and actor group identities. See the daily events format.	Human death
Demonstration in Riot	Riot	combined with 704
Demonstration met by police violence These were coded as single events each and were aggregated in the annual and quarterly series with riots to form a series comparable with the riots series of the first 20 years.	Demonstrate	Combined with 700 and 712
Election Popular elections to national legislatures (722) an election is an act of collective choice by a body of people entitled to vote. In order to make the new aggregations comparable with the earlier series of elections for the first 20 years (721), we aggregated together elections for national legislatures, chief executives, and referenda discounting, however, more than any one of these on a single day. No exclusions were made on the basis of suffrage limitations, competitiveness, legality, or political significance. Excluded were elections held within the national assembly or party congresses, popular elections to bodies such as trade union councils or political party leadership, and elections below the national level. Although the coding was much more straightforward than was the case with events of protest and coercion, there were a number of ad hoc decision rules that were invoked as coding progressed. In the case of Algeria, for example, the election of the president on December 12, 1976, was coded as an election even though there was only one candidate. Alternatively, we could have considered this a referendum on Boumedienne's leadership. On the other hand, the selection of General Geisel on January 15, 1974, by the Brazilian state legislature was not coded as the election of a national chief executive because it was not a popular election. The event was coded as a renewal of executive tenure. Finally, although Puerto Rico's status is ambiguous, the election of the governor on November 7, 1968, and every four years subsequently, was coded as an election and, as appropriate, as a regular power transfer or a renewal of executive tenure.	Elect representative	Not coded in WH after 1977. Combined with 714, 722, 723, 724, 725 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Election of chief executive Popular elections of national chief executives		Combined with 714, 721, 722, 723, 725 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Election to national legislature Popular elections to national legislatures (722) an election is an act of collective choice by a body of people entitled to vote. Reported events by a national electorate to elect national leaders or to express a choice about a policy issue were coded. Included are popular elections to national legislatures (722)		Combined with 714, 721, 723, 724, 725 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Executive adjustment a modest form of governmental change is the executive adjustment or change in the composition of the ruling elite and its most prevalent variety is the cabinet coalition shift. More formally, an executive adjustment is a modification in the membership of a national executive body that does not signify a transfer of formal power from one leader or ruling group to another. National executive bodies include cabinets, councils of ministers, presidential offices, military juntas, and ruling party councils in states in which authoritative power is wielded by a single party. Modification in the membership of such a ruling body, short of major executive transfers, typically includes "reshuffles" or "shakeups" in which a single member or a small number of leaders are removed from or added to the membership. The simple redistribution of ministerial portfolios among the same individuals does not constitute an executive adjustment. There must be movement in or out of the executive body. The creation and elimination of cabinet posts were also coded as adjustments. Executive adjustments are considered "minor" in the power process because only one or a few positions change hands. The control exercised by the leader or ruling group is not reported to have been transferred or lost either wholly or partially to another group, faction or coalition. In most cases, according to the coding staff, the ruling group makes such adjustments to consolidate or strengthen its security or popularity. Often cabinet ministers are sacrificed to the populace as scapegoats for specific policy failures. executive adjustments are also considered "regular" in that they are not reported to be accompanied by actual or threatened coercion or by unconventional procedures.	Executive adjustment	Combined with 716 and 718 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Imposition of censorship Imposition of censorship includes actions by the government to limit, to curb, or to intimidate the mass media, including newspapers, magazines, books, radio, and television. Typical examples of such action are the closing of newspapers or journals, the censoring of articles in the domestic press, and the controlling of dispatches sent out of the country.	Impose censorship
Imposition of martial law of curfew	Impose restrictions	Added to WH in 1978. Combined with 727.
Imposition of political restrictions Imposition of other political restrictions includes actions taken by the government to neutralize, to suppress, or to eliminate a perceived threat to the security of the government, the regime, or the state itself. Although this category encompasses a diversity of governmental activities, all of them share the characteristic of constituting specific responses to a perceived security problem at the national level even though sanctions are sometimes carried out by sub-national governmental units. An attempt has been made to exclude sanctions against criminal behavior that has no political relevance. This does not mean that organized crime or crime in the streets are unimportant or that they do not indicate a degree of social dissatisfaction. Rather, we have tried to maintain a focus on behavior that is directly political, i.e., behavior concerned with the distribution and use of political power in the polity.
Irregular executive transfer Irregular power transfer (720) a change in the office of national executive from one leader or ruling group to another. The change is accomplished outside the conventional legal or customary procedures for transferring power in effect at the time of the event. Such events are accompanied either by actual physical violence or with the clear threat of force. These events thus encompass bloodless depositions of rulers as well as the more spectacular sanguinary variety. In conformity with the general practice, no qualitative assessment is made of the subsequent significance of an irregular power transfer as a criterion for coding. Thus, such an event may precipitate a fundamental change in the political system, or the system may continue substantially unchanged except for the irregularity of the power transfer event itself. Users of this variable would be ill advised if they thought of it as an exhaustive indicator of political or social revolution. Irregular power transfers are closer conceptually to what are conventionally thought of as coups d'etat. They are probably more numerous than conventional coups, however, because the coding rules required that the many steps and maneuvers associated with a crisis be recorded as distinct events. So there are a number of occasions in which events that historians might consider a single coup are represented here by two or more irregular change events. The only criterion for a "successful" irregular power transfer is that there be a report stating the new leadership has actually replaced the old, arrogating to itself the titles and functions of chief executive. No minimum tenure limit could be imposed as a criterion for "success" without being unduly arbitrary. There are a few cases in which two irregular power transfers have occurred on the same date. the indicator is more sensitive to maneuverings and "counter-coups" than an inspection of the definition alone might lead one to suppose. Irregular power transfers sometimes beget further irregular political crises. It happens even more frequently that an irregular transfer is closely followed by several other kinds of governmental change as a new regime seeks to consolidate and legitimize its position. After the coup, the coup leaders sometimes install a person either inside or outside the government as president or premier. Such events were coded as regular executive transfers because in the new power context such delegations or transfers of authority conform to new procedural norms and are not accompanied by threatened or actual coercion. Irregular power transfers are initiated by groups, cliques, cabals, parties and factions either inside or outside a government and its agencies. Sometimes they are carried out by rebellious minorities within a country, the military, or conspirators backed by foreign powers.	Coups and mutinies	Combined with 717 and 719 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Other form of protest Other form of protest was coded separately for the 1968-1982 period, but was aggregated with demonstrations in the annual and quarterly series.	Demonstrate	Combined with 700 and 702
Political executions Political execution the outright elimination of a political dissident, is a more severe form of governmental sanction. This event type consists of the execution of persons in the control of the authorities and under orders of the national authorities. Excluded are assassinations, even if known to have been arranged by the authorities, and persons killed in riots, armed attacks, strikes, etc. Also excluded are executions for criminal offenses such as murder that are not reported to have political significance. Typically, a political execution is one in which the person executed is charged with activities threatening the state, the regime, the government, or its leaders. Executions for political crimes committed before 1948 are excluded. Reports of death sentences handed down are not included unless there is evidence that the sentence was carried out.	Force Use	IDEA treats this as use of force since WH excludes assassination in its defintion of political executions.
Political strike	Strikes and boycotts	combined with 711
Protest demonstration A non-violent gathering of people organized for the announced purpose of protesting a regime, a government, or one of its leaders; its ideology, policy, or intended policy; or its previous action or intended action. The issues of protest involved are perceived as significant at the national level, but within that framework demonstrations directed at all levels and branches of government are included. This category of events includes demonstrations for or against a foreign government, its leaders, or its visiting representatives when such demonstrations are reported to indicate opposition to the demonstrators own government. Not included are election meetings and rallies, political parades, and normal holiday celebrations. A residual category of other protests (712) was coded separately for the 1968-1982 period, but was aggregated with demonstrations in the annual and quarterly series.	Demonstrate	IDEA event forms are not actor bound so the WH regime target must be extracted in a post-coding procedure. WH events 702 and 712 are combined with 700.
Raid	Armed actions	Added to WH in 1978
Referendum National referenda	Elect representative	Combined with 714, 721, 722, 723, 724 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Regime support demonstration A non-violent gathering of people whose purpose, however, is to lend support to a government, its policies and actions, or to one or more of its leaders. Support demonstrations directed at all levels and branches of government are included when the issues are perceived as significant at the national level. Included also are all demonstrations that are not clearly of a protest nature; therefore, the category includes demonstrations that, while political in nature, cannot be classified as explicitly supportive of a regime. This event type was aggregated separately for the annual and quarterly series.	Rally support
Regular executive transfer Regular executive transfer (718) a change in the office of national executive from one leader or ruling group to another that is accomplished through conventional legal or customary procedures and is unaccompanied by actual or directly threatened physical violence. The office of national executive refers both to individual leaders, such as presidents and prime ministers, and also to collegial executive bodies, such as cabinets composed of one or more parties or groups. In the latter case, a change is recorded if a constituent element is included or if a new element replaces an old one. The term "regular" means that the change is not reported to be accompanied by actual or directly threatened violence and that it conforms to the prevailing conventional procedures of the political system. In contrast, "irregular" change events are characterized by actual or threatened violence and by abnormal procedures. Chief executives include monarchs, presidents, prime ministers, and party chiefs in countries where single parties exercise decisive power, paralleling or supervising the affairs of government. Also included are all other analogous offices and titles that may not enjoy general usage. For a transfer to be scored, it was necessary that the chief executive office change hands, but the new recipient of power could have held office previously. Cases in which an executive's tenure was extended through elections or other means were coded as renewal events. In some political systems there are two chief executives. To avoid qualitative judgments about the relative significance of prime ministers over presidents (e.g., France) changes in both offices were coded. In constitutional or traditional monarchies changes in the prime minister were coded. A number of countries were under colonial administration during the period under investigation. In these countries, changes in the colonial executive, such as the governor- general were coded as power transfers. Many of these countries became independent during the coding period. This was especially true of the 1960-1965 period in Africa. The formal change to sovereign status was recorded as a power transfer even if there happened not to be a simultaneous change in executive officers. Several countries also underwent secession or unification during the 1948-82 period. These violent and tumultuous changes were coded as irregular executive transfers. Examples included Bangladesh, South Vietnam and Biafra. The date of the power transfer was coded as the effective date of the transfer. For example, the unification of north and South Vietnam was coded on April 30, 1975, the date of the fall of Saigon, rather than July 2, 1976, the date of formal unification. Similarly, changes in a country's constitution that clearly increased or decreased a chief executive's powers were also counted. Some constitutions, notably in Latin America, require the temporary resignation of a president while traveling abroad. Such resignations were not counted unless the president failed to resume office when he returned. Another coding question concerns the duration of a change event. Sometimes, the consummation of a power transfer without any discernable change exceeded the 24-hour time boundary typical of most of our events. Coders therefore were instructed to score the date of each power transfer event as the date on which it was reported completed. For example, if a cabinet were restructured to include a new party, the event would be scored on the day that the new cabinet assumed power, not the day when the old one resigned. In the case of a newly elected president or prime minister, the executive transfer was scored as occurring when the office was taken and not on the day the election results were announced.	Executive adjustment	Combined with 715 and 716 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Relaxation of censorship Relaxation of censorship involves the modification or elimination of controls on the mass media. These event types are reported in the daily events file, but they are combined with reports of the imposition and relaxation of other restrictions in the annual and quarterly events file.	Relax censorship
Relaxation of martial law of curfew	Relax curfew	Added to WH in 1978
Relaxation of political restrictions Relaxation of political restrictions involves the modification or elimination of political restrictions. For events of imposition and relaxation of sanctions (726-730), only actor group identity was coded. Within the context of sanctions, of course, actor group might more accurately be thought of as target (from the government's point of view). All other attributes for sanctions and all attributes for government change and elections (714-725) will appear as missing data.	Relax administrative sanction
Release of arrested	Return, release person(s)	Added in 1978
Renewal and adjustment Executive adjustments scored simultaneously with renewals (716) for the period 1968-82, we distinguished simple renewals of executive tenure from renewals that were accompanied by adjustments. But adjustments occurring simultaneously with major regular executive transfers or irregular power transfers are not scored because they are considered an integral part of the executive transfer. A reported major transfer in effect obscures the context in which mere adjustment could occur. The removal of a member from an executive body and his simultaneous arrest is coded as governmental sanction rather than an executive adjustment. The death of a minister in office is coded as an executive adjustment more because of possible political consequences rather than because there was a political cause for the death. Significant shakeups can occur, of course, in many executive structures besides the highest ruling body. For example, in some countries large-scale purges of the military and civilian bureaucracies would seem to represent a kind of power adjustment. Nevertheless, considerations of comparability of categories and of available information required confining the arena for this variable to the pinnacle of the national government. Thus, changes in a country's general staff have not been coded unless the general staff actually ruled the country. Changes in deputy premiers or cabinet undersecretaries have not been coded. Adjustments in party central committee membership in communist countries have been excluded, but Presidium members and heads of ministries have been included.	Executive adjustment	Combined with 715 and 718 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Renewal of executive tenure An act that reestablishes or reconfirms the term of office of the national executive incumbent leader or ruling group through the country's regular institutionalized channels for this procedure. Formal power is neither lost nor transferred, but renewed in those who currently hold it. The term "regular" means that the change is not reported to be accompanied by actual or directly threatened violence or physical coercion and that it conforms to the prevailing conventional norms of the system. The idea was to measure change and continuity within systems as they are, not as they ought to be. For the moment we have had to ignore notions of structural violence. Examples of executive renewals include the reelection of president, the reelection to parliament of the party or parties that support an incumbent president or premier, the reappointment of an incumbent premier who has resigned, a vote of confidence in a premier or his cabinet and the defeat of a vote of no-confidence. On September 15, 1974, Tunisia’s Bourguiba was named president for life. This was coded as a renewal of executive tenure. Renewal of executive tenure, which occurred simultaneously with one or more executive adjustments, was coded as a distinct event type (716). The two are aggregated together in the annual and quarterly series.	Elect representative	Combined with 721, 722, 723, 724, 725. IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Riot	Riot	combined with 703
Student strike	Strikes and boycotts	combined with 710
Unsuccessful assassination	Assassination	combined with 709
Unsuccessful irregular executive transfer Unsuccessful irregular power transfer (719) a reported attempt by an organized group to remove and replace the incumbent national executive outside the conventional procedures for transferring formal power. An important coding condition for such an event is that an actual attempt at seizing power must be reported; if the authorities discover a "plot" before its implementation is undertaken, an unsuccessful irregular transfer is not coded. The criterion of success is whether the incumbent executive is effectively removed from exercising his powers and the challenger is installed in his place. There is no time condition; thus, a challenger who displaces the incumbent executive even for a period of hours has affected a successful irregular power transfer. In addition, the attempt must take place in the capital or in the physical center of government. A revolt or mutiny in a province or another city does not qualify; it is an armed attack. "Irregular" events, the opposite of "regular" as defined above, are characterized by actual or directly threatened violence and by nonconformity to the prevailing conventional procedures of the political system. 0 a group inside or outside of the government, including a member group in a coalition; a faction within an administration, ruling party or military; a political opposition party or movement; a dissatisfied element outside of politics per se, such as a religious brotherhood; or foreign conspirators can stage an unsuccessful irregular transfer. An example is a situation in which dissident units of the army in conjunction with a political party are reported to have taken up positions around key government installations and kidnapped several high government officials before being crushed by loyal army units.	Coups and mutinies	Combined with 717 and 720 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.
Unsuccessful regular executive transfer Unsuccessful regular executive transfer (717) is an event in which an abortive attempt is made by persons not holding national executive office to obtain such office through legal or conventional procedures. National executive office refers both to individual leadership positions such as presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and party chiefs in states where single parties exercise decisive political power and also to collegial executive bodies such as cabinets composed of one or more parties or groupings. The term "regular" means that the change is not reported to be accompanied by actual or directly threatened violence or physical coercion, and that it conforms to the prevailing conventional procedures of the particular political system in which it takes place. Unsuccessful regular executive transfers are "intermediate" between renewals of tenure and regular executive transfers. An unsuccessful regular executive transfer is not coded after an election that confirms the ruling individual or group in power. This is coded as a renewal of executive tenure. A recurring example of this type of event is the appointment of a premier who fails to form a coalition government or who fails to have her or his government approved by the legislature. Eventually, when a new government is formally installed, a regular or irregular executive transfer is also scored. Unlike the situation following a renewal of tenure, there is in this case a governmental crisis in which political decision-making beyond routine administration is suspended.		Combined with 719 and 720 IDEA makes distinctions in modalities in in a post parse procedure.