| 1. |
- Bartels, L. M., et al.
(författare)
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The Forum: Global Challenges to Democracy? Perspectives on Democratic Backsliding
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Studies Review. - 1521-9488. ; 25:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a widespread perception that we are witnessing a period of democratic decline, manifesting itself in varieties of democratic backsliding such as the manipulation of elections, marginalization and repression of regime opponents and minorities, or more incremental executive aggrandizement. Yet others are more optimistic and have argued that democracy is in fact resilient, or that we are observing coinciding trends of democratic decline but also expansion. This forum highlights key issues in the debate on democracy's decline, which center on conceptual and measurement issues, agreement on the phenomenon but not its nature or severity, the importance of international factors, the emphasis we should put on political elites versus citizens, and the consequences of backsliding for global politics. Staffan I. Lindberg provides an empirical perspective on the scope and severity of democracy's decline, and argues that polarization and misinformation are important drivers for this current wave of autocratization. Susan D. Hyde highlights the detrimental consequences of reduced support for democracy by the international community, which has affected civil society organizations-important arbiters of democracy-especially severely. Challenging some of these conclusions, Irfan Nooruddin claims that any gains for democracy after the end of the Cold War were short-lived, failing to sustain democracy because of an overemphasis on elections and a disregard for structural factors. Finally, Larry M. Bartels argues that we need to look to political elites and not citizens if we want to protect democracy in the United States and elsewhere, which has important implications for how we study democracy and its challenges.
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| 2. |
- Coppedge, M, et al.
(författare)
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Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: A New Approach
- 2011
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Ingår i: Perspectives on Politics. - 1537-5927 .- 1541-0986. ; 9:2, s. 247-267
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the wake of the Cold War, democracy has gained the status of a mantra. Yet there is no consensus about how to conceptualize and measure regimes such that meaningful comparisons can be made through time and across countries. In this prescriptive article, we argue for a new approach to conceptualization and measurement. We first review some of the weaknesses among traditional approaches. We then lay out our approach, which may be characterized as historical, multidimensional, disaggregated, and transparent. We end by reviewing some of the payoffs such an approach might bring to the study of democracy.
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| 3. |
- Coppedge, M, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring High-Level Democratic Principles using the V-Dem Data
- 2015
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- While the definition of extended conceptions of democracy has been widely discussed, the measurement of these constructs has not attracted similar attention. In this paper we present new measures of polyarchy, liberal democracy, deliberative democracy, egalitarian democracy, and participatory democracy that cover most polities in the period 1900 to 2013. These indices are based on data from a large number of indicators collected through the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project. A discussion of the theoretical considerations and the concrete formula linked to our aggregation of indicators and components into high level measures is followed by an illustration of how these measures reflect variations in quality of democracy, given the respective ideals, in 2012. In the conclusion we urge scholars to make use of the rich dataset made available by V-Dem.
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| 4. |
- Knutsen, Carl Henrik, et al.
(författare)
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Conceptual and Measurement Issues in Assessing Democratic Backsliding
- 2023
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper addresses three interrelated questions. First, how strong is the evidence that democracy has declined globally over the last decade? Second, how should we best measure (change in) democracy? Third, given that much of the recent evidencefor global backsliding comes from measurement projects that rely on expert ratings, is there evidence that experts have become harsher judges of democratic quality in recent years? We begin our analysis with a discussion of how to conceptualize democracy and democratic backsliding, stressing that for contested concepts such as democracy, no one operationalization is likely to reign supreme. We then dissect the distinction between “subjective” and “objective” measures, examining how measurement error can affect even seemingly objective indicators, and highlight how subjectivity pervades all measurement enterprises. Next, focusing on V–Dem’s methodology, we show—through both theoretical considerations and empirical tests—that it is highly unlikely that time-varying expert biases drive recent declines in estimates of the state of global democracy. Finally we evaluate Little and Meng’s (2023) recent attempt to assess the prevailing case for global backsliding using “objective” measures. We demonstrate multiple issues that make their measurement strategy ill-suited to studying trends in global democracy.
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| 5. |
- Knutsen, Carl Henrik, et al.
(författare)
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Conceptual and Measurement Issues in Assessing Democratic Backsliding
- 2024
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Ingår i: PS-POLITICAL SCIENCE & POLITICS. - 1049-0965 .- 1537-5935. ; 57:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the past decade, analyses drawing on several democracy measures have shown a global trend of democratic retrenchment. While these democracy measures use radically different methodologies, most partially or fully rely on subjective judgments to produce estimates of the level of democracy within states. Such projects continuously grapple with balancing conceptual coverage with the potential for bias (Munck and Verkuilen 2002; Przeworski et al. 2000). Little and Meng (L&M) (2023) reintroduce this debate, arguing that "objective" measures of democracy show little evidence of recent global democratic backsliding.1 By extension, they posit that time-varying expert bias drives the appearance of democratic retrenchment in measures that incorporate expert judgments. In this article, we engage with (1) broader debates on democracy measurement and democratic backsliding, and (2) L&M's specific data and conclusions.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Lindberg, Staffan I, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Aggregating Varieties of Democracy Data
- 2013
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Ingår i: American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting, Chicago, August 29-September 1.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project is generating a new dataset of indicators for various facets of democracy. Although many of the indicators are quite useful by themselves, most users of V-Dem data probably require measures of democracy at a higher level of aggregation.This paper discusses the benefits and drawbacks of aggregation, the challenges faced when aggregating V-Dem data, and several strategies that the V-Dem team will employ to deal with these challenges. It may be that some concepts commonly used in democratic theory are not very useful for describing the most salient empirical dimensions of variation and that less prominent, yet familiar, concepts perform this function well. This aggregation effort therefore has the potential to reshape the way we think about what democracy is, what types of democracy there are, what they have in common, and how they differ.
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| 9. |
- Lindberg, Staffan I, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Electoral Democracy and Human Development
- 2015
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study reconciles competing positions in the debate over whether democracy improves human development. We argue that electoral competition incentivizes politicians to provide public goods and services, and these, in turn, save lives. Hence, the electoral aspect of democracy should have a substantial impact on human development while other aspects, e.g.related to citizen empowerment or civil liberties,should be less consequential. Extant measures of democracy do not allow for the disambiguation of various components of democracy, which may help to account for the mixed results reported by various studies (contrast Ross 2006 and Gerring et al. 2012).We draw on the new Varieties of Democracy dataset, which provides a highly differentiated set of democracy indicators, and a new collection of mortality data compiled by the Gapminder project. With these tools, we are able to conduct panel analyses that include most (semi-)sovereign countries from 1900 to the present - a much more extensive sample than has ever been mustered for this particular research question. We find that composite indices such as Polity have a tenuous relationship to human development, while indices focused on the electoral component of democracy yield a highly robust relationship.
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| 10. |
- Lindberg, Staffan I, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring Electoral Democracy with V-Dem Data
- 2014
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Ingår i: American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting, Chicago, August 28-31, 2014.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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