Participatory democracy index

Quick info
Data type	Numeric
Scale	Metric
Value labels	Not applicable
Technical name	polnat_polity_democ_partipdem_vdem
Category	Political factors
Label	Participatory democracy index
Related indicators	Electoral democracy index Liberal democracy index Deliberative democracy index Egalitarian democracy index

The "Participatory democracy index" is part of V-Dem's high level democracy indices capturing features of democracy at the most abstract level. The "Participatory democracy index" in particular captures to what extent the ideal of participatory democracy is achieved. It ranges from low (0) to high (1).

Conceptually, it is defined as follows: "The participatory component embodies the values of direct rule and active participation by citizens in all political processes: it emphasizes non-electoral forms of political participation such as through civil society organizations and mechanisms of direct democracy" (Coppedge et al. 2016, 583).

Coding rules

The index is composed of several components and lower-level indices applying V-Dem's measurement model (Pemstein et al. 2021) which in turn are indices built from a number of indicators. The index itself is "based on the mean value of (1) a BFA [Bayesian factor analysis] tapping into the extent of popular participation in civil society organizations (v2x_cspart, based on 4 indicators); (2) a derived index tapping the extent to which citizens engage in means of direct popular voting, i.e., initiatives, referenda and plebiscites (v2xdd_dd, based on 11 indicators); and (3) a derived index of the extent to which there are local and/or regional elections to nonsubordinate executive or legislative bodies (v2xel_locelec and v2x_regelec, based on 3 indicators each)" (Coppedge et al. 2016, 583) [emphasis in original; note that variable names in italics refer to V-Dem's nomenclature in their dataset, not in WeSIS].

For the exact index aggregation formula see Coppedge et al. 2021, Appendix A.

Bibliographic info

Citation: Coppedge, Michael, Staffan Lindberg, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jan Teorell. 2016. "Measuring high level democratic principles using the V-Dem data". International Political Science Review 37 (2): 580-593. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512115622046

Related publications:

• Coppedge, Michael, Staffan I. Lindberg, Svend-Erik Skaaning and Jan Teorell. 2015. "Measuring High Level Democratic Principles using the V-Dem Data". V-Dem Working Paper No. 6. University of Gothenburg: Varieties of Democracy Institute.
• 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 von Römer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Aksel Sundtröm, Eitan Tzelgov, Luca Uberti, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2021. "V-Dem Codebook v11.1" Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.
• Pemstein, Daniel, Kyle L. Marquardt, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Juraj Medzihorsky, Joshua Krusell, Farhad Miri, and Johannes von Römer. 2021. “The V-Dem Measurement Model: Latent Variable Analysis for Cross-National and Cross-Temporal Expert-Coded Data”. V-Dem Working Paper No. 21. 6th edition. University of Gothenburg: Varieties of Democracy Institute.

Misc

Project manager(s): Nils Düpont (A01)

Data release:

• Indicator updated with new data based on V-Dem release v11.1 on March 31, 2021

Revisions:

• Not yet applicable

Sources

• Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, Nazifa Alizada, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, Agnes Cornell, M. Steven Fish, Lisa Gastaldi, Haakon Gjerløw, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Garry Hindle, Nina Ilchenko, Joshua Krusell, Anna Lührmann, Seraphine F. Maerz, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Josefine Pernes, Johannes von Römer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Aksel Sundström, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, Steven Wilson and Daniel Ziblatt. 2021. "V-Dem [Country–Year/Country–Date] Dataset v11.1" Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemds21.