Varieties of Democracy Dataset - Version 9

Michael Coppedge - University of Notre Dame, Kellogg Institute for International Studies

John Gerring - University of Texas at Austin, Department of Government

Carl Henrik Knutsen - University of Oslo

Staffan I. Lindberg - University of Gothenburg, Department of Political Science

Jan Teorell - Lund University

David Altman - Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

Michael Bernhard - University of Florida, Department of Political Science

M. Steven Fish - University of California-Berkeley, Department of Political Science

Adam Glynn - Emory University, Department of Political Science

Allen Hicken - University of Michigan

Anna Lührmann - University of Gothenburg

Kyle L. Marquardt - National Research University Higher School of Economics

Kelly McMann - Case Western Reserve University

Pamela Paxton - University of Texas at Austin

Daniel Pemstein - North Dakota State University

Brigitte Seim - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Rachel Sigman - Postgraduate Naval School

Svend-Erik Skaaning - Aarhus University

Jeffrey Staton - Emory University, Department of Political Science

Steven Wilson - The University of Nevada at Reno

Agnes Cornell - Lund University

Lisa Gastaldi - University of Gothenburg

Haakon Gjerløw - University of Oslo

Nina Ilchenko - University of Gothenburg

Joshua Krussel - University of Gothenburg

Laura Maxwell - University of Gothenburg

Valeriya Mechkova - University of Gothenburg, Department of Political Science

Juraj Medzihorsky - University of Gothenburg

Josefine Pernes - University of Gothenburg

Johannes von Römer - University of Gothenburg

Natalia Stepanova - University of Gothenburg

Aksel Sundström - University of Gothenburg

Eitan Tzelgov - University of East Anglia

Yi-ting Wang - National Cheng Kung University

Tore Wig - University of Oslo

Daniel Ziblatt - Harvard University

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Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is a new approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. We provide a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond the simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between five high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian, and collects data to measure these principles.

V-Dem draws on theoretical and methodological expertise from its worldwide team to produce data in the most objective and reliable way possible. Approximately half of the indicators in the V-Dem dataset are based on factual information obtainable from offcial documents such as constitutions and government records. The other half consists of evaluative indicators on topics like political practices and compliance with de jure rules. On such issues, typically five experts provide ratings.

V-Dem works closely with leading social science research methodologists and has developed a state of the art Bayesian Item Response Theory measurement model that, to the extent possible, minimizes coder error and addresses issues of comparability across countries and over time. V-Dem also draws on the team’s academic expertise to develop theoretically informed techniques for aggregating indicators into mid- and high-level indices. In this sense, V-Dem is at the cutting edge of developing new and improved methods of social science measurement. Show less..