This article integrates authoritarian and democratic studies by introducing a novel framework analyzing how executives gain power.

The Five Dimensions of Executive Appointment & Dismissal

* Hereditary sources of authority

* Military control over government

* Dominance through ruling parties

* Direct election mechanisms

* Confidence-based dismissal processes

Using the Varieties of Democracy dataset, we systematically track these appointment bases from 1789 to present across 192 countries.

Descriptive Statistics

The framework reveals five distinct patterns in executive power foundations: hereditary monarchies, military juntas, party dictatorships, elected leadership with dismissal powers, and purely confidence-based governments.

Cross-National Patterns & Causal Links

Our exploratory analysis explores how these different bases influence:

* Government repression levels

* Political corruption extent

* Executive survival rates

across democratic spectrums.

This data-driven approach yields testable hypotheses about the relationship between executive appointment mechanisms and governance outcomes.