Patterns (Jul 2020)
Data for Politics: Creating an International Research Infrastructure Measuring Democracy
Abstract
Summary: Questions such as how democratic a country is, how free are its media, or how independent is its judiciary are highly important to researchers and decision makers. We describe a research infrastructure that produces the world's largest dataset on democracy, governance, human rights, and related topics. The dataset is far more resolved and accurate than previous efforts, currently covers 202 political units from 1789 until the present, and is regularly updated each spring. The infrastructure involves an online survey of over 3,000 experts from 180 countries. Survey design and advanced statistical techniques are crucial for assuring data validity. The infrastructure also provides reports and analyses based on the data and easy-to-use tools for exploring and graphing the data. The Bigger Picture: V-Dem is a new research infrastructure providing almost 30 million data on democracy, human rights, governance, judiciary, media, and related areas. The data are generated through collaboration involving over 3,000 experts from 180 countries and advanced statistical techniques. The V-Dem democracy indices are far more resolved and accurate than previous efforts.The research infrastructure is built to deliver annual updates of data in coming years and to produce a democracy report in March every year, assessing the trends for democracy and autocracy in the world. The societal impact is already evident, with a wide variety of organizations using V-Dem’s data for benchmarking, strategic decision making, and analysis, such as the World Bank, the European Commission, Open Government Partnership, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, USAID, International IDEA, and Transparency International.
