V-Dem Institute

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The V-Dem Institute (Varieties of Democracy), founded by Staffan I. Lindberg in 2014, studies the qualities of government. The headquarters of the project is based at the department of political science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. [1]

Contents

Democracy indices

The V-Dem Institute publishes a number of high-profile datasets that describe qualities of different governments, annually published and publicly available for free. [2] These datasets are a popular dataset among political scientists, due to information on hundreds of indicator variables describing all aspects of government, especially on the quality of democracy, inclusivity, and other economic indicators. [3] Compared to other measures of democracy (such as the Polity data series and Freedom House's Freedom in the World ), the V-Dem Institute's measures of democracy are more granular [4] and 2020 included "more than 470 indicators, 82 mid-level indices, and 5 high-level indices covering 202 polities from the period of 1789–2019." [4] Political scientist Daniel Hegedus describes V-Dem as "the most important provider of quantitative democracy data for scholarly research." [4]

The V-Dem institute also republishes 59 other indicators [5] and several other[ which? ] indices which are created, in part, with the assistance of V-Dem indices. The Digital Society Project is a subset of indicators on V-Dem's survey which asks questions about the political status of social media and the internet. [6]

Democracy Report

The V-Dem Institute publishes the Democracy Report that describes the state of democracy in the world, with a focus on democratization and autocratization. [7] The Democracy Report is published annually in March. The Democracy Report, the dataset, scientific articles, and working papers are free to download on the institute’s website, which also features interactive graphic tools.

V-Party Dataset

Party positions for all political parties above a vote share of 5% in 169 countries are published as V-Party Dataset by V-Dem Institute. [8] The V-Party Dataset includes indices of Anti-Pluralism, Populism, Cultural Dimension and Economic Left-Right. The Anti-Pluralism Index is modeled as lack of commitment to democratic process, disrespect for fundamental minority rights, demonization of opponents, and acceptance of political violence. The dataset demonstrates higher autocratization for high anti-pluralism and populism. [9]

Regimes of the World

The Regimes of the World (RoW) [10] [11] distinguishes four types of political systems: closed autocracies, electoral autocracies, electoral democracies, and liberal democracies, this classification is built on V-Dem Democracy Core indices. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

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In politics, a regime is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc., that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. The two broad categories of regimes that appear in most literature are democratic and autocratic. However, autocratic regimes can be broken down into a subset of many different types. The key similarity between all regimes are the presence of rulers, and either formal or informal institutions.

Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in the relations of employment. One of the most prominent is the right to freedom of association, otherwise known as the right to organize. Workers organized in trade unions exercise the right to collective bargaining to improve working conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polity data series</span> Political science project ranking states by democraticity

The Polity data series is a data series in political science research. Along with the V-Dem Democracy indices project and Democracy Index, Polity is among prominent datasets that measure democracy and autocracy.

The following are links to some international rankings of the United States.

A free and fair election is defined by political scientist Robert Dahl as an election in which "coercion is comparatively uncommon". A free and fair election involves political freedoms and fair processes leading up to the vote, a fair count of eligible voters who cast a ballot, and acceptance of election results by all parties. An election may partially meet international standards for free and fair elections, or may meet some standards but not others.

The following are international rankings of Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic transition</span> Specific phase in a political system

A democratic transition describes a phase in a countries political system as a result of an ongoing change from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one The process is known as democratisation, political changes moving in a democratic direction. Democratization waves have been linked to sudden shifts in the distribution of power among the great powers, which created openings and incentives to introduce sweeping domestic reforms. Although transitional regimes experience more civil unrest, they may be considered stable in a transitional phase for decades at a time. Since the end of the Cold War transitional regimes have become the most common form of government. Scholarly analysis of the decorative nature of democratic institutions concludes that the opposite democratic backsliding (autocratization), a transition to authoritarianism is the most prevalent basis of modern hybrid regimes.

These are the international rankings of the United Kingdom.

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Staffan I. Lindberg, is a Swedish political scientist, Principal Investigator for Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute and Director of the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg. He is a professor in the Department of Political Science, and member of the Board of University of Gothenburg, Sweden member of the Young Academy of Sweden, Wallenberg Academy Fellow, Research Fellow at the Quality of Government Institute; and senior advisor for the Oslo Analytica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic backsliding</span> A country becoming less democratic

Democratic backsliding is a process of regime change towards autocracy that makes the exercise of political power by the public more arbitrary and repressive. This process typically restricts the space for public contestation and political participation in the process of government selection. Democratic decline involves the weakening of democratic institutions, such as the peaceful transition of power or free and fair elections, or the violation of individual rights that underpin democracies, especially freedom of expression. Democratic backsliding is the opposite of democratization.

Democracy in India is the largest by population in the world. Elections in India started with the 1951–52 Indian general election. India was the 19th most electoral democratic country in Asia according to V-Dem Democracy indices in 2023 with a score of 0.399 out of 1. The Economist Democracy Index considered 2022 India a Flawed democracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democracy in Africa</span> Overview of the role and situation of democracy in Africa

Democracy in Africa is measured according to various definitions of democracy by a variety of indexes, such as V-Dem Democracy indices, and Democracy Index by The Economist.

Democracy in Iraq is a fledgling process, but Iraq achieved a more democratic approach than most surrounding countries. Iraq has a score of 3.51 of ten on the 2021 The Economist Democracy Index, which is considered authoritarian. Iraq scored 0.362 on the V-Dem Democracy electoral democracy index in 2023, ranking as 3rd most electoral democratic country in the Middle East. Numerous wars, corruption, and civil and ethnic conflict in Iraq have made it difficult for a stable democratic government to emerge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">V-Dem Democracy Indices</span> Measure of the state of democracy by V-Dem Institute

The Democracy Indices by V-Dem are democracy indices published by the V-Dem Institute that describe qualities of different democracies. This dataset is published on an annual basis and is publicly available and free. In particular, the V-Dem dataset is popular among political scientists and describes the characteristics of political regimes worldwide. In total, datasets released by the V-Dem Institute include information on hundreds of indicator variables describing all aspects of government, especially on the quality of democracy, inclusivity, and other economic indicators. An R package automatically bundles new data.

Democracy indices are quantitative and comparative assessments of the state of democracy for different countries according to various definitions of democracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democracy in Asia</span> Overview of democracy in Asia

Democracy in Asia can be comparatively assessed according to various definitions of democracy. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices, the Asian countries with the highest democracy scores in 2023 are Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Israel, meanwhile the Asian countries with lowest democracy scores in 2023 are Saudi Arabia, China and Afghanistan. Democratic backsliding can be observed in parts of Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean</span> Overview of democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean can be compared according to the different definitions of democracy. The V-Dem Democracy indices considers the Latin American and Caribbean countries with the highest democracy scores in 2023 as Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Jamaica and countries with lowest democracy scores as Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. Democratic backsliding can be observed in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

References

  1. "Varieties of democracy (V-dem) - Varieties of democracy (V-dem), University of Gothenburg, Sweden".
  2. Redden, Elizabeth (30 March 2020). "Ranking Academic Freedom Globally". Inside Higher Ed.
  3. V-Dem Institute (2022). "The V-Dem Dataset" . Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 Hegedüs, Daniel (2020). "Varieties of Democracy: Measuring Two Centuries of Political Change. By Michael Coppedge, John Gerring, Adam Glynn, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Daniel Pemstein, Brigitte Seim, Svend-Erik Skaaning, and Jan Teorell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 226p. $99.99 cloth". Perspectives on Politics. 18 (4): 1258–1260. doi:10.1017/S1537592720003059. ISSN   1537-5927.
  5. Rankin, Elizabeth (8 January 2016). "New democracy dataset to 'revolutionize' democracy research". Notre Dame News.
  6. Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg,Jan Teorell, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, Agnes Cornell, M. Steven Fish, Lisa Gastaldi,Haakon Gjerløw, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Anna Lührmann, Seraphine F. Maerz, Kyle L.Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Johannes vonRömer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Aksel Sundtröm, EitanTzelgov, Luca Uberti, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2021. "V-Dem Codebook v11"Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. Archived 8 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Democracy Reports". V-Dem Institute. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  8. "V-Party Dataset". V-Dem Institute. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  9. Medzihorsky, Juraj; Lindberg, Staffan I (2023). "Walking the Talk: How to Identify Anti-Pluralist Parties" (PDF). Party Politics. doi:10.1177/13540688231153092.
  10. Lührmann, Anna, Marcus Tannenberg, and Staffan I. Lindberg. "Regimes of the world (RoW): Opening new avenues for the comparative study of political regimes". Politics and Governance 6.1 (2018): 60.
  11. Herre, Bastian (2 December 2021). "The 'Regimes of the World' data: how do researchers measure democracy?". Our World in Data . Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  12. Herre, Bastian; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Roser, Max (15 March 2013). "Democracy". Our World in Data. Retrieved 16 March 2023.

Further reading