The concern of this variable is, according to its creators, with the checks and balances
between the various parties in the decision making process. However, a closer look at how this
variable is constructed immediately reveals that it is an outcome measure, which reflects not the
constraints, but what happened in the last election. When countries have inconsistent electoral
experiences, their scores fluctuate wildly. For example, Haiti gets the worst score of 1 under the
dictatorship during 1960-1989, jumps up to 6 when Aristide is elected in 1990, goes back to 1 when
he is ousted during 1991-1993, rises again to 6 and even a perfect score of 7 during 1994-1998 as
Aristide and his party return to power (even though the elections had been widely criticized), but
falls down all the way to 3 during 2000-2001. Likewise, Argentina fluctuates between the worst
scores under generals, and the best ones after elections, even when the elected leaders undermine 11
the legislature and courts. The data make it obvious that Polity IV provides a rapidly moving
assessment of electoral outcomes over time, not a measure of actual political constraints on
government, and certainly not a measure of anything permanent or durable. And to the extent that,
in richer countries, elections are likely to be cleaner, “constraints on the executive” may well be a
consequence of development rather than the other way around.