Release Updates

Review new additions to SIGLA data, recent changes to SIGLA features and functionality, and important updates to the SIGLA website.

SIGLA continuously updates and upgrades its systems and interfaces. Minor changes and improvements that do not significantly impact the user experience or the data that SIGLA provides are aggregated and noted in the subsequent release update.
August 2022: Version 1.0
Download Version 1.0 and Documentation

Data Highlights

  1. The beta version of SIGLA includes data on institutions of governance in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.
  2. Users may view data on institutions in the following categories: Constitution, Codes, Executive, Legislature, Elections, and International Institutions. 
  3. Institutions within the five national institutional categories above include:
    • Constitution;
    • Civil Code, Civil Procedural Code, Commercial Code, Criminal Code, Criminal Procedural Code, Electoral Code, Labor Code and Tax Code;
    • Executive Overview, Presidency, Ministries Overview, and Ministries;
    • Legislature; and
    • Electoral System, Electoral Results, and Institutions of Electoral Governance.
  4. For each institution, SIGLA provides:
    • Data on general characteristics, functioning, institutional positioning and interaction within the state, members, and leaders; and
    • Customized variables to capture important institution-specific data such as presidential powers under Presidency and constitutional amendments and rights under Constitution.
  5. Excluding Constitution and Codes, each institution includes a Body of Law variable that links to a set of important laws and regulations about the institution’s creation and functioning.

Tech Highlights

  1. SIGLA offers four browsing routes through which users can view data.
    • The Browse by Country route allows users to explore one or more institutional categories and institutions for a single country.
    • The Browse by Institution route allows users to choose one institutional category and explore its institutions across multiple countries.
    • The Compare route allows users to compare any institution across different countries. Users may also use this feature to compare international institutions.
    • The Custom Browse route allows users to view data for individual variables associated with as many institutions and countries as they wish.
  2. Users may pin variables of interest to a personalized page for easier access.
  3. Users may download pinned data in an Excel file.
  4. The “Report an Issue” button allows users to provide feedback on SIGLA data and the SIGLA website.

Website Highlights

  1. The SIGLA website introduces SIGLA and offers information to orient users.
  2. “User Guide” offers information on SIGLA’s features and functionality and provides information to help users view data.
  3. “Institutional Matrix” indicates the data that are currently available on SIGLA and projects what data SIGLA will eventually provide.
  4. “Cite SIGLA” offers the format to use when citing SIGLA.
  5. “Research Methodology” describes SIGLA’s conceptual scheme, the data SIGLA provides, and the procedures SIGLA uses to collect, update, and verify data.

Contributing team members: Estefania Acosta, André D.S. Amaral, Elizabeth Ash, Simón Ballesteros, Alicia Barry, Coleen Baxley, Binio Binev, Hannah Bomberg, Luis E. Borrero, Sarah Bryant, Francesca Burke, Leticia Chacón, Louisa Christen, Bianca Clark, Cristina Cuervo Rengifo, Sean Fulmer, Chloe Gilroy, Alexis Gorfine, Caroline Hamilton, To Huynh, Arnosh Keswani, Anna Landre, Will Linde, Felipe Lobo Koerich, Colin Maloney, Andres Marquez, Catalina Martínez Sarmiento, Katja Newman, Andrea Ocando, Paulina Ortega Madrid, Stacey Pirtle, Eric Salgado, Ben Schatz, Ian Scholer, Maria Victoria Silveira e Silva, Colton Wade, Nic Weber, and Howard Xuan.

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