Difference between revisions of "Electoral democracy index"

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Line 20: Line 20:
  
 
It is conceptually defined as follows:
 
It is conceptually defined as follows:
"The electoral principle of democracy seeks to embody the core value of making rulers
+
"The electoral component of democracy embodies the core value of making rulers responsive
responsive to citizens, achieved through electoral competition for the electorate’s approval
+
to citizens through competition for the approval of a broad electorate during periodic
under circumstances when suffrage is extensive; political and civil society organizations can
+
elections. We have opted to capture Dahl's (1998) concept of polyarchy, which identifies the
operate freely; elections are clean and not marred by fraud or systematic irregularities; and
+
following political institutions as constitutive of modern representative democracy: (1)
elections affect the composition of the chief executive of the country. In between elections,
+
elected officials; (2) free, fair and frequent elections; (3) freedom of expression and alternative
there is freedom of expression and an independent media capable of presenting alternative
+
sources of information; (4) associational autonomy; and (5) inclusive citizenship (universal
views on matters of political relevance. In the V-Dem conceptual scheme, electoral democracy
+
suffrage). The V-Dem Electoral Democracy index measures these features using the
is understood as an essential element of any other conception of representative democracy —
+
elected executive index (''v2x_accex'', based on 12 indicators), the clean elections index
liberal, participatory, deliberative, egalitarian, or some other" (Coppedge et al. 2019, 39).
+
(''v2xel_frefair'', based on 8 indicators), the freedom of expression index (''v2x_freexp_thick'',
 +
based on 9 indicators, including 3 for alternative sources of information), the freedom of
 +
association index (''v2x_frassoc_thick'', based on 6 indicators), and the suffrage indicator
 +
(''v2x_suffr''). All indices range from 0 to 1, and all except that on elected executive (which is
 +
a derived construct) are based on point predictions from Bayesian factor analyses (BFA) that
 +
all support unidimensionality." (Coppedge et al. 2016, 582).
  
  
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| citation =  
 
| citation =  
 
<ul>
 
<ul>
  <li>Teorell, Jan, Michael Coppedge, Staffan Lindberg, and Svend-Erik Skaaning. 2019. "Measuring Polyarchy Across the Globe, 1900–2017". ''Studies in Comparative International Development'' 54 (1): 71–95. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-018-9268-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-018-9268-z]</li>
+
  <li>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 https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512115622046]
 +
</li>
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
  
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Valeriya Mechkova, Johannes von Römer, Aksel Sundtröm, Eitan Tzelgov, Luca Uberti, Yi-ting Wang,
 
Valeriya Mechkova, Johannes von Römer, Aksel Sundtröm, Eitan Tzelgov, Luca Uberti, Yi-ting Wang,
 
Tore Wig, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2019. "[https://www.v-dem.net/en/reference/version-9-apr-2019/ V-Dem Codebook v9]". Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.
 
Tore Wig, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2019. "[https://www.v-dem.net/en/reference/version-9-apr-2019/ V-Dem Codebook v9]". Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.
 +
</li>
 +
<li>
 +
Dahl, Robert A. 1998. ''On Democracy''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
 +
</li>
 +
<li>
 +
Teorell, Jan, Michael Coppedge, Staffan Lindberg, and Svend-Erik Skaaning. 2019. "Measuring Polyarchy Across the Globe, 1900–2017". ''Studies in Comparative International Development'' 54 (1): 71–95. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-018-9268-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-018-9268-z]
 
  </li>
 
  </li>
 
  <li>
 
  <li>

Revision as of 14:34, 11 October 2019

Quick info
Data type Numeric
Scale Metric
Value labels Not applicable
Technical name polnat_sys_polyarchy_vdem
Category Regime characteristics
Label Electoral democracy index
Related indicators

The "Electoral democracy index" is part of V-Dem's high level democracy indices capturing features of democracy at the most abstract level. The "Electoral democracy index" in particular "capture[s] Dahl's seven institutions of polyarchy: freedom of association, suffrage, clean elections, elected executive, and freedom of expression and alternative sources of information" (Coppedge et al. 2019, 27). It ranges from low (0) to high (1).

It is conceptually defined as follows: "The electoral component of democracy embodies the core value of making rulers responsive to citizens through competition for the approval of a broad electorate during periodic elections. We have opted to capture Dahl's (1998) concept of polyarchy, which identifies the following political institutions as constitutive of modern representative democracy: (1) elected officials; (2) free, fair and frequent elections; (3) freedom of expression and alternative sources of information; (4) associational autonomy; and (5) inclusive citizenship (universal suffrage). The V-Dem Electoral Democracy index measures these features using the elected executive index (v2x_accex, based on 12 indicators), the clean elections index (v2xel_frefair, based on 8 indicators), the freedom of expression index (v2x_freexp_thick, based on 9 indicators, including 3 for alternative sources of information), the freedom of association index (v2x_frassoc_thick, based on 6 indicators), and the suffrage indicator (v2x_suffr). All indices range from 0 to 1, and all except that on elected executive (which is a derived construct) are based on point predictions from Bayesian factor analyses (BFA) that all support unidimensionality." (Coppedge et al. 2016, 582).


Coding rules

The index is composed of several components and lower-level indices applying V-Dem's measurement model (Pemstein et al. 2019) which in turn are indices built from a number of indicators. For the index aggregation formula see Coppedge et al. 2019, 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, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, M. Steven Fish, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Anna Lührmann, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Agnes Cornell, Lisa Gastaldi, Haakon Gjerløw, Valeriya Mechkova, Johannes von Römer, Aksel Sundtröm, Eitan Tzelgov, Luca Uberti, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2019. "V-Dem Codebook v9". Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.
  • Dahl, Robert A. 1998. On Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Teorell, Jan, Michael Coppedge, Staffan Lindberg, and Svend-Erik Skaaning. 2019. "Measuring Polyarchy Across the Globe, 1900–2017". Studies in Comparative International Development 54 (1): 71–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-018-9268-z
  • Pemstein, Daniel, Kyle L. Marquardt, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Juraj Medzihorsky, Joshua Krusell, Farhad Miri, and Johannes von Römer. 2019. "The V-Dem Measurement Model: Latent Variable Analysis for Cross-National and Cross-Temporal Expert-Coded Data". V-Dem Working Paper No. 21. 4th edition. University of Gothenburg: Varieties of Democracy Institute.



Misc

Project manager(s):
  • Nils Düpont (A01)


Data release:
  • The indicator is included in WeSIS rev. 1


Revisions:
  • 2019.10 Initial upload for WeSIS rev. 1

Sources

  • Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, M. Steven Fish, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Anna Lührmann, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Steven Wilson, Agnes Cornell, Lisa Gastaldi, Haakon Gjerløw, Nina Ilchenko, Joshua Krusell, Laura Maxwell, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Josefine Pernes, Johannes von Römer, Natalia Stepanova, Aksel Sundström, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2019. "V-Dem Country-Year Dataset v9". Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemcy19