V-Dem Democracy Indices

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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.[1] 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.[2]

Map of V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index for 2023

The V-Dem Institute's measures of democracy are the most elaborate and granular among several democracy indexes (such as the Polity data series and Freedom House's Freedom in the World).[3][how?] By 2020, the V-Dem index had "more than 470 indicators, 82 mid-level indices, and 5 high-level indices covering 202 polities from the period of 1789–2019".[3] Each indicator is coded independently by at least five country experts.[3] V-Dem uses methodological tools to deal with rating reliability and confidence intervals in the expert ratings.[3] Political scientist Daniel Hegedus describes V-Dem as "the most important provider of quantitative democracy data for scholarly research".[3]

Democracy indices

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As of 2022, the V-Dem Institute publishes 483 bespoke indicators and republishes 59 other indicators.[4][5] V-Dem publishes five core indices with several other supplementary indices. The core indices are the electoral democracy index, the liberal democracy index, the participatory democracy index, the Deliberative Democracy Index and the egalitarian democracy index.[6]

The Electoral Democracy Index
This index measures the principle of electoral or representative democracy, including whether elections were free and fair, as well as the prevalence of a free and independent media. This index is part of all the other indices as a central component of democracy.[7]
Liberal Democracy Index
This index incorporates measures of rule of law, checks and balances, and civil liberties along with the concepts measured in the electoral democracy index.[7]
Participatory Democracy Index
This index measures the degree to which citizens participate in their own government through local democratic institutions, civil society organizations, direct democracy, and the concepts measured in the electoral democracy index.[7]
Deliberative Democracy Index
This index measures the degree to which decisions are made in the best interest of the people as opposed to due to coercion or narrow interest groups, in addition to the basic electoral democracy index.[7]
Egalitarian Democracy Index
This index measures the level of equal access to resources, power, and freedoms across various groups within a society, in addition to the level of electoral democracy.[7]

Rankings

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The table below shows for V-Dem Democracy Indices published in 2024 with 2 high-level V-Dem Democracy indices and 4 mid-level Democracy Component indices evaluating the state of democracy in year 2023.[8][9][10]

V-Dem Democracy Indices (14th edition)
CountryDemocracy IndicesDemocracy Component Indices
ElectoralLiberalLiberalEgalitarianParticipatoryDeliberative
 Denmark0.9150.8830.9770.9720.7160.967
 Ireland0.8960.8310.9330.8750.6340.905
 Estonia0.8950.8450.9550.8870.6380.85
 Belgium0.8950.8140.9090.9310.6480.91
 Switzerland0.890.8440.9620.9310.8820.98
 New Zealand0.8860.8310.950.8660.7030.831
 Norway0.8860.8360.9550.9610.6550.988
 Sweden0.8840.8520.980.9030.6510.905
 Luxembourg0.8780.7980.910.9390.5780.975
 France0.8770.810.930.8110.6320.939
 Czech Republic0.8710.8050.9330.9130.5850.88
 Costa Rica0.8680.8160.9530.8860.6480.945
 Finland0.860.820.9720.8960.6370.942
 Canada0.8560.7550.8820.7770.6480.822
 Germany0.8560.8120.9670.9410.6620.976
 Australia0.8540.8040.9570.8320.7040.921
 Netherlands0.8540.80.9510.8910.620.943
 United Kingdom0.8520.7720.9140.810.660.843
 Latvia0.8520.7680.9080.8620.6740.825
 United States of America0.8480.7720.920.6510.6570.838
 Portugal0.8450.7510.8870.7950.6110.872
 Uruguay0.8450.770.9220.8210.7680.849
 Austria0.8440.7730.9260.8930.650.827
 Spain0.8430.7570.9020.8410.6450.828
 Argentina0.840.690.8030.7690.6160.696
 Chile0.8380.7860.9560.7230.6610.939
 Italy0.8370.7570.9110.9040.7470.911
 Iceland0.8340.7440.8960.870.6590.845
 Slovakia0.8230.7390.9090.7920.6860.583
 Taiwan0.8230.7220.8780.9130.7510.897
 Japan0.8180.7310.9010.9270.5650.9
 Lithuania0.7980.7350.9380.8680.6920.822
 Jamaica0.7980.6780.8470.8290.590.807
 Barbados0.7960.6780.8490.8250.2950.887
 Vanuatu0.7960.6910.8720.7640.5560.754
 Brazil0.7840.6920.8870.5920.6430.925
 Malta0.7790.640.8070.8940.6530.803
 Cyprus0.7740.6360.8170.8690.5740.837
 Slovenia0.7580.6530.8640.8840.710.867
 Cape Verde0.7540.6480.8630.7250.5380.695
 Trinidad and Tobago0.7530.6350.840.7880.5770.928
 Suriname0.7530.6310.8370.7130.5720.773
 Greece0.7510.5820.7520.8350.6410.868
 Seychelles0.7430.6590.8940.8310.2880.942
 Croatia0.7330.6390.8790.7680.6250.68
 Panama0.730.5710.760.5410.5180.737
 Israel0.7230.6340.8890.7620.6030.759
 Moldova0.7130.6080.860.80.6650.93
 Colombia0.7040.5650.7930.5280.6480.695
 South Korea0.7030.6040.8630.8630.610.844
 Peru0.6990.5760.8190.5190.6220.506
 East Timor0.6980.5070.6920.5550.5540.72
 South Africa0.6870.5840.8510.6290.5630.865
 Dominican Republic0.6850.4380.5770.460.5950.837
 Nepal0.6810.5230.7420.5920.6140.555
 São Tomé and Príncipe0.6750.5630.8350.670.5610.678
 Kosovo0.6740.4940.7020.6850.5240.6
 Romania0.6690.5010.720.6740.6570.35
 Bulgaria0.6660.5880.8980.760.6630.914
 Ghana0.6610.5620.8580.6830.3810.854
 Ecuador0.6460.4670.6890.4880.7590.54
 Namibia0.6460.5190.7920.4250.4860.706
 Lesotho0.6440.5030.7580.7270.5310.689
 The Gambia0.6410.5170.7980.6590.5920.728
 Liberia0.6390.4360.6380.5610.4690.836
 Armenia0.6340.4220.6110.8110.4420.69
 Solomon Islands0.6190.4810.7590.5170.5140.495
 Senegal0.6170.4590.7190.6880.5820.844
 Georgia0.6040.4730.7610.7840.5420.803
 Maldives0.5990.4530.7280.610.490.782
 Poland0.5880.4440.7290.8770.5550.719
 Bolivia0.5860.3530.530.5950.6320.541
 Montenegro0.5810.4670.7850.7710.5610.759
 Malawi0.580.4850.830.4790.5670.753
 Sri Lanka0.580.4210.6880.6250.5490.61
 Paraguay0.5790.4260.6970.3150.5350.493
 Kenya0.5640.4560.7890.590.6030.833
 North Macedonia0.560.3590.5840.5980.610.64
 Botswana0.5580.4340.7530.6580.4320.587
 Indonesia0.5410.360.6040.4450.5950.816
 Mexico0.5340.2990.4760.4520.6540.545
 Honduras0.5340.3940.6950.3890.5440.675
 Zambia0.5290.4240.7710.5820.6520.883
 Mongolia0.5270.4050.7320.6070.3980.769
 Bhutan0.5270.4450.8190.8310.5580.921
 Guyana0.5120.3320.5780.6860.5130.38
 Bosnia and Herzegovina0.5120.3460.6160.6550.5270.678
 Albania0.510.4020.750.7060.5550.444
 Malaysia0.5060.3590.6550.7260.5330.662
 Guatemala0.5050.3090.5360.2940.4890.46
 Fiji0.5040.410.7790.6380.4320.78
 Benin0.4980.3250.580.7290.4870.516
 Sierra Leone0.4970.3840.7280.6420.5850.912
 Nigeria0.4910.3270.5970.4930.6090.614
 Mauritius0.4790.360.6960.7290.570.809
 Papua New Guinea0.4750.3830.7610.4930.5270.524
 Madagascar0.4740.2410.4040.3130.50.44
 Tunisia0.4720.3010.5580.8130.5480.766
 Ivory Coast0.4540.2530.4570.5220.6110.822
 Hungary0.440.3250.6680.6310.5710.361
 Tanzania0.4350.390.8440.7080.5320.777
 Philippines0.430.2870.5810.3340.5670.749
 Guinea-Bissau0.4210.2330.4250.4540.3450.401
 Togo0.4160.2150.4090.6260.4770.735
 Ukraine0.4150.2490.50.6540.580.761
 Somaliland0.4040.2470.5080.280.5090.507
 Singapore0.4030.3310.7350.810.1340.738
 Niger0.3890.2820.5950.6130.5990.792
 El Salvador0.3880.1110.1510.3150.4690.261
 India0.3770.2750.6210.4290.5070.612
 Iraq0.3670.210.4520.4490.4620.589
 Lebanon0.3640.2370.5290.5030.4720.667
 Serbia0.3640.2530.5790.7470.550.486
 Mauritania0.3630.1840.3730.3380.520.548
 Kyrgyzstan0.3580.1990.4320.5820.3920.367
 Mozambique0.3530.2210.4960.5130.5390.56
 Angola0.3490.1730.3580.2930.1790.367
 Pakistan0.3440.2120.4840.2430.5450.531
 Kuwait0.3330.3130.80.580.1860.66
 Democratic Republic of the Congo0.3170.1220.2440.3530.3980.631
 Central African Republic0.3020.10.1890.2820.3060.373
 Cameroon0.2980.1310.2890.4980.250.229
 Gabon0.2930.1750.4290.6320.560.533
 Zanzibar0.2890.230.6080.6960.4620.698
 Thailand0.2880.2280.5980.4720.3880.341
 Zimbabwe0.2880.1740.4360.360.5320.543
 Turkey0.2870.1130.2450.530.4160.195
 Kazakhstan0.2840.1440.3450.5970.2990.446
 Ethiopia0.2830.110.2380.5180.3850.612
 Uganda0.280.2170.5770.4210.3920.693
 Comoros0.2750.1060.2320.5920.5340.483
 Algeria0.270.1210.2870.7160.230.434
 Morocco0.2630.2490.7060.5660.4110.727
 Jordan0.2560.2530.7290.5660.2840.692
 Palestine (West Bank)0.2540.1380.3590.6230.4220.388
 Bangladesh0.2530.0960.2190.2430.3030.298
 Djibouti0.2530.1220.3030.5280.3970.387
 Republic of the Congo0.2450.1190.3050.340.5460.562
 Mali0.2290.1480.4130.6090.5820.724
 Uzbekistan0.2150.0810.20.4490.1730.445
 Rwanda0.2140.0960.2520.5480.4190.589
 Haiti0.2140.0660.1520.1280.2590.597
 Venezuela0.2110.0550.1150.2850.4820.067
 Burkina Faso0.2050.1820.5590.6190.4210.697
 Cambodia0.1980.0570.130.2190.3710.187
 Libya0.1940.1030.2950.4460.4510.703
 Russia0.190.0620.1510.3960.3790.2
 Egypt0.1890.1290.3880.3170.2110.303
 Azerbaijan0.1880.0640.1620.370.1190.123
 Burundi0.1880.0590.1450.310.1810.199
 Equatorial Guinea0.1830.0570.140.3270.1130.1
 Guinea0.180.0880.2530.3880.4240.22
 Cuba0.1760.0580.1510.7710.2360.3
 Somalia0.1720.1360.4290.290.2510.734
 Oman0.170.1370.4360.580.3880.203
 Nicaragua0.170.0270.0420.3060.280.033
 Tajikistan0.1680.0410.0910.1980.1570.149
 Belarus0.1570.0360.0820.7340.1610.044
 Iran0.1560.0820.2460.50.0790.186
 Hong Kong0.1540.1240.4010.7210.1310.17
 Turkmenistan0.150.0360.0830.2880.0650.043
 Vietnam0.1490.1140.3720.6620.5630.613
 Chad0.1480.0470.1270.2150.340.327
 Syria0.1460.0540.1530.1670.1370.056
 South Sudan0.1430.0650.1930.0820.2320.076
 Palestine (Gaza Strip)0.1360.070.2190.5820.3570.202
 Sudan0.1350.0460.1320.2080.2790.163
 Laos0.1320.0950.3130.440.3930.181
 Yemen0.130.0480.140.1080.2170.181
 Bahrain0.1290.0540.1650.3910.1220.209
 Eswatini0.1240.0940.3150.2190.2530.164
 United Arab Emirates0.1020.0780.270.4860.0950.285
 Qatar0.0870.0850.3060.3820.0410.389
 North Korea0.0840.0150.0360.3170.1530.036
 Myanmar0.0810.0160.0440.2070.3140.221
 Afghanistan0.0750.030.1010.1120.030.093
 China0.0740.0370.1290.3150.1240.382
 Eritrea0.0680.010.0250.4390.0280.109
 Saudi Arabia0.0150.0460.1840.4460.0870.249

Impact and usage

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Countries autocratizing (red) or democratizing (blue) substantially and significantly (2010–2020). Countries in grey are substantially unchanged.[11]

A variety of other organizations use V-Dem's dataset in the construction of their indicators.[12][13] USAID's Journey to Self Reliance Country Roadmap uses V-Dem's data to inform three of its indicators: Liberal Democracy (from V-Dem's Liberal Democracy Index), Social Group Equality (from V-Dem's Social Group Equality in Respect for Civil Liberties) and Civil Society and Media Effectiveness (from V-Dem's Diagonal Accountability Index).[12] The World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators also use V-Dem's data to inform their Control of Corruption indicator (includes V-Dem's Corruption index), Rule of Law Indicator (includes V-Dem's liberal component index), and the Voice and Accountability Indicator (includes V-Dem's Expanded freedom of expression, freedom of association, and Clean elections indicators).[13] The Democracy Report is annually created by V-Dem Institute from the V-Dem Democracy indices.[14]

Digital Society Project

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The Digital Society Project is a subset of indicators on V-Dem's survey that asks questions about social media's political status and the internet.[7] Specifically, the Digital Society Project measures a range of questions related to internet censorship, misinformation online, and internet shutdowns.[15] This annual report includes 35 indicators assessing five areas: disinformation, digital media freedom, state regulation of digital media, the polarization of online media, and online social cleavages.[16][17] It has been updated each year starting in 2019, with data covering from 2000–2021.[16] Similar to other expert analyses like Freedom House, these data are more prone to false positives when compared with remotely sensed data, such as that from Access Now or the OpenNet Initiative.[17]

Criticisms

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Data on democracy, and particularly global indices of democracy, have been scrutinized and criticized by various scholars. Gerardo L. Munck and Jay Verkuilen questioned various aspects of the data produced by Freedom House and Polity, such as the concept of democracy they measured, the design of indicators, and the aggregation rule.[18] Political scientists Andrew T. Little and Anne Meng "highlight measurement concerns regarding time-varying bias in expert-coded data" such as Freedom House and V-Dem and encourage improving expert-coding practices.[19] Knutsen et al.[20] did not see evidence for time-varying bias in their expert-coded data and note the application of item response theory, factor analysis and estimates of uncertainties to limit expert biases while discussing concerns in operationalization of observer-invariant measures of democracy.

Political scientist Jonas Wolff criticized V-Dem for gradually abandoning a pluralist conceptualization of democracy. According to him, V-Dem has moved away from its original emphasis on the conceptual varieties of democracy and adopted an uncontested view of democracy as liberal democracy while also ignoring the limitations of liberal democracy.[21]

The V-Dem dataset does not cover some countries, namely: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Brunei, Dominica, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Kiribati, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Tonga, Tuvalu, and the Vatican.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "New index rates countries by degree of freedom for scholars".
  2. ^ V-Dem Institute (2022). "The V-Dem Dataset". Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e 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. S2CID 230623566.
  4. ^ "New democracy dataset to 'revolutionize' democracy research". 8 January 2016.
  5. ^ Tucker, Joshua. "Open data and (15 million!) new measures of democracy". Washington Post.
  6. ^ Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, Kyle L. Marquardt, Juraj Medzihorsky, Daniel Pemstein, Nazifa Alizada, Lisa Gastaldi, Garry Hindle, Johannes von Römer, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, and Steven Wilson. 2020. "V-Dem Methodology v10". Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.
  7. ^ a b c d e f 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
  8. ^ Democracy Report 2024, Varieties of Democracy
  9. ^ V-Dem Institute (2024). "The V-Dem Dataset". Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  10. ^ Coppedge, Michael, et al. Varieties of democracy: Measuring two centuries of political change. Cambridge University Press, 2020.
  11. ^ Nazifa Alizada, Rowan Cole, Lisa Gastaldi, Sandra Grahn, Sebastian Hellmeier, Palina Kolvani, Jean Lachapelle, Anna Lührmann, Seraphine F. Maerz, Shreeya Pillai, and Staffan I. Lindberg. 2021. Autocratization Turns Viral. Democracy Report 2021. University of Gothenburg: V-Dem Institute. https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/74/8c/748c68ad-f224-4cd7-87f9-8794add5c60f/dr_2021_updated.pdf
  12. ^ a b USAID (2020) FY 2021 USAID Journey to Self-Reliance Country RoadmapMethodology Guide. https://selfreliance.usaid.gov/docs/FY_2021_USAID_Journey_to_Self-Reliance_Country_Roadmap_Methodology_Guide.pdf
  13. ^ a b "WGI-Documents". The World Bank. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  14. ^ Democracy Report 2023, Table 3, V-Dem Institute, 2023
  15. ^ Mechkova, V., Daniel P., Brigitte S.,&Steven W. (2020). Digital Society Project Dataset v2.Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project http://digitalsocietyproject.org/
  16. ^ a b Mechkova, Valeriya; Pemstein, Daniel; Seim, Brigitte; Wilson, Steven (2021). Digital Society Survey Codebook (PDF). Digital Society Project.
  17. ^ a b Fletcher, Terry; Hayes-Birchler, Andria (2020-07-30). Comparing Measures of Internet Censorship: Analyzing the Tradeoffs between Expert Analysis and Remote Measurement. Data for Policy 2020.
  18. ^ Gerardo L. Munck and Jay Verkuilen, “Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices,” Comparative Political Studies 35, 1 (2002): 5-34. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.469.3177&rep=rep1&type=pdf
  19. ^ Little, Andrew T.; Meng, Anne (2024-01-11). "Measuring Democratic Backsliding". PS: Political Science & Politics: 1–13. doi:10.1017/S104909652300063X. ISSN 1049-0965.
  20. ^ Knutsen, Carl Henrik; Marquardt, Kyle L.; Seim, Brigitte; Coppedge, Michael; Edgell, Amanda B.; Medzihorsky, Juraj; Pemstein, Daniel; Teorell, Jan; Gerring, John; Lindberg, Staffan I. (2024-01-11). "Conceptual and Measurement Issues in Assessing Democratic Backsliding". PS: Political Science & Politics: 1–16. doi:10.1017/S104909652300077X. ISSN 1049-0965.
  21. ^ Wolff, Jonas (2022-07-06). "From the Varieties of Democracy to the defense of liberal democracy: V-Dem and the reconstitution of liberal hegemony under threat". Contemporary Politics. 29 (2): 161–181. doi:10.1080/13569775.2022.2096191. ISSN 1356-9775. S2CID 250372421.

Further reading

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