| 1. |
- Kerr, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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Public trust in manipulated elections: The role of election administration and media freedom
- 2017
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Ingår i: Electoral Studies. - : Elsevier BV. - 0261-3794. ; 50, s. 50-67
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2017 Elsevier Ltd As multiparty elections have become a global norm, scholars and policy experts regard public trust in elections as vital for regime legitimacy. However, very few cross-national studies have examined the consequences of electoral manipulation, including the manipulation of election administration and the media, on citizens' trust in elections. This paper addresses this gap by exploring how autonomy of election management bodies (EMBs) and media freedom individually and conjointly shape citizens’ trust in elections. Citizens are more likely to express confidence in elections when EMBs display de-facto autonomy, and less likely to do so when mass media disseminate information independent of government control. Additionally, we suggest that EMB autonomy may not have a positive effect on public trust in elections if media freedom is low. Empirical findings based on recent survey data on public trust in 47 elections and expert data on de-facto EMB autonomy and media freedom support our hypotheses.
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| 2. |
- Lührmann, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Constraining Governments: New indices of vertical, horizontal and diagonal accountability
- 2017
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Accountability - constraints on the government’s use of political power - is one of the cornerstones of good governance. However, conceptual stretching and a lack of reliable measures have limited cross-national research and comparisons regarding the role of both accountability writ large and its different sub-types. To address this research gap, we use the V-Dem dataset and Bayesian statistical models to develop new ways to conceptualize and measure accountability and its core dimensions. We provide indices capturing the extent to which governments are accountable to citizens (vertical accountability), other state institutions (horizontal accountability) and the media and civil society (diagonal accountability), as well as an aggregate index that incorporates the three sub-types. These indices cover virtually all countries from 1900 to today. We demonstrate the validity of our new measures by analyzing trends from key countries, as well as by demonstrating that the measures are positively related to development outcomes such as health and education.
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| 3. |
- Lührmann, Anna, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Democracy at Dusk?
- 2017
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- V-Dem Annual Democracy Report 2017
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| 4. |
- Lührmann, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Regimes In the World (RIW): A Robust Regime Type Measure based on V-Dem
- 2017
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Classifying political regimes has never been as difficult as in this day and age. Most regimes in the world now hold de-jure multiparty elections with universal suffrage. Yet, in some countries these elections ensure that political rulers are – at least somewhat – accountable to the electorate whereas in others they are a mere window dressing exercise for authoritarian politics. Hence, regime types need to be distinguished based on the de-facto implementation of democratic rules. To this end, researchers increasingly turn to expert-coded data sets such as the new Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset. Using V-Dem data, we propose an operationalization of four important regime types – closed and electoral autocracies; electoral and liberal democracies – with vast coverage (almost all countries form 1900 to 2016) and precision. Our new Regimes in the World (RIW) measure includes uncertainty estimates to identify countries in the grey zone between regime types and account for inter-coder disagreement. In cases of disagreement with other datasets (7-12% of the cases), we classify regimes with severe electoral manipulation and infringements of the political freedoms more frequently as electoral autocracies than other datasets, which suggests that our measure captures the opaqueness of contemporary autocracies better.
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| 5. |
- Lührmann, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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The Effectiveness of Democracy Aid to Different Regime Types and Democracy Sectors
- 2017
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Large-N studies suggest that democracy aid is effective, while multiple small-N investigations call such findings into question. This paper accounts for this contradiction and significantly improves our understanding of democracy aid effectiveness by disaggregating democracy aid into specific types and examining effectiveness in different regime types. We argue that a specific type of aid is more likely to be effective when the aid does not pose a threat to regime survival and when the aid matches the particular democratic deficits in a country. Analysis of OECD aid and Varieties of Democracy data for 119 countries from 2002-2012 supports our argument.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Mechkova, Valeriya, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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How much democratic backsliding?
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Democracy. - : Project Muse. - 1045-5736 .- 1086-3214. ; 28:4, s. 162-169
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2017 National Endowment for Democracy and Johns Hopkins University Press. Democracy is facing challenges across the world, yet suggestions of a global crisis are not warranted. Based on data from the largest democracy database ever compiled, the Varieties of Democracy Project (V-Dem), we find that the number of democracies worldwide declined slightly from 100 in 2011 to 97 today, and 16 countries transitioned to democracy over the last ten years, including Tunisia, Nepal, and Nigeria. However, there is a fair degree of volatility. In 2013 alone, five countries transitioned to democracy but nine went the other way. Worrisome trends include gradual erosion of freedom of expression and association in several countries, among them Turkey, Hungary, Poland, and Brazil.
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| 8. |
- Mechkova, Valeriya, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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The Accountability Sequence: From De-jure to De-facto Constraints on Governments
- 2017
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Accountability is one of the cornerstones of good governance. Establishing accountable governments is a top priority on the international development agenda. Yet, scholars and democracy practitioners know little about how accountability mechanisms develop and thus can be supported by international and national actors. The present study tackles the questions of how, and in what sequence accountability sub-types develop. We consider not only vertical (elections and political parties) and horizontal accountability (legislature, judiciary and other oversight bodies), but also diagonal accountability (civil society and media) in both their de-jure and the de-facto dimensions. By utilizing novel sequencing methods, we study their sequential relationships in 173 countries from 1900 to the present with data from the new V-Dem dataset. Considering the long-term dimensions of institution building, this study indicates that most aspects of de-facto vertical accountability precede other forms of accountability. Effective institutions of horizontal accountability – such as vigorous parliaments and independent high courts – evolve rather late in the sequence and build on progress in many other areas.
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