V-Dem Institute

The V-Dem Institute (Varieties of Democracy) is an independent research institute founded by Professor Staffan I. Lindberg in 2014 and is funded by a number of government organizations, World Bank and several research institutions.[3] The headquarters of the project is based at the department of political science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.[4]

"Varieties of Democracy" redirects here. For varieties of democracy, see Types of democracy.

Map of V-Dem's 2020 Index of Egalitarian Democracy v11.1 [1]
Red indicates more authoritarian, blue indicates more democratic.
Countries autocratizing (red) or democratizing (blue) substantially and significantly (2010–2020). Countries in grey are substantially unchanged.[2]

Varieties of Democracy is a new approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy around the world.[5][6] The V-Dem project distinguishes among five high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian, and collects data to measure these principles.[7]

The dataset is updated, expanded, and released every year.[8] Based on the current data, V-Dem publishes an annual Democracy Report that describes the state of democracy in the world.[9] The Democracy Report, the dataset, scientific articles, and working papers are free to download on the institute’s website that also features interactive graphic tools.

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).[10] 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."[10] Each indicator is coded independently by at least five country experts.[10] V-Dem uses methodological tools to deal with rating reliability and confidence intervals in the expert ratings.[10] Political scientist Daniel Hegedus describes V-Dem as "as the most important provider of quantitative democracy data for scholarly research."[10]

Democracy indices

V-Dem has 5 high level indices which correspond to each of the five high level principles of democracy it identifies.[7]

  • 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.[11]
  • 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.[11]
  • 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.[11]
  • 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.[11]
  • 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.[11]

Rankings

The table below shows how countries score on the 11th edition of V-Dem's Democracy indices in 2020.[1]

V-Dem Democracy Indices (v11 2020)
Country Electoral Democracy Liberal Democracy Participatory Democracy Deliberative Democracy Egalitarian Democracy
 Denmark 0.91 0.878 0.696 0.869 0.87
 Sweden 0.905 0.873 0.649 0.842 0.815
 Costa Rica 0.899 0.849 0.658 0.853 0.81
 Norway 0.899 0.855 0.647 0.871 0.856
 New Zealand 0.894 0.846 0.698 0.776 0.798
  Switzerland 0.892 0.847 0.787 0.855 0.825
 Estonia 0.89 0.832 0.625 0.7 0.796
 Belgium 0.887 0.821 0.634 0.815 0.824
 Spain 0.886 0.8 0.635 0.787 0.811
 Ireland 0.881 0.817 0.648 0.807 0.788
 Germany 0.879 0.833 0.637 0.844 0.809
 Finland 0.878 0.837 0.631 0.807 0.802
 France 0.877 0.796 0.61 0.8 0.766
 Portugal 0.876 0.792 0.598 0.771 0.764
 United Kingdom 0.872 0.797 0.643 0.755 0.746
 Netherlands 0.87 0.825 0.594 0.815 0.781
 Canada 0.869 0.736 0.619 0.769 0.764
 Luxembourg 0.869 0.783 0.595 0.824 0.804
 Uruguay 0.865 0.795 0.697 0.754 0.74
 Italy 0.861 0.785 0.686 0.779 0.785
 South Korea 0.859 0.792 0.594 0.787 0.751
 Iceland 0.854 0.79 0.632 0.789 0.754
 Greece 0.843 0.744 0.611 0.768 0.715
 Austria 0.842 0.758 0.615 0.718 0.764
 Australia 0.836 0.787 0.605 0.75 0.716
 Slovakia 0.836 0.756 0.617 0.665 0.664
 Argentina 0.831 0.67 0.547 0.685 0.656
 Cyprus 0.825 0.724 0.53 0.633 0.732
 Japan 0.822 0.731 0.535 0.734 0.741
 Latvia 0.821 0.736 0.598 0.681 0.695
 Lithuania 0.821 0.76 0.627 0.695 0.71
 Taiwan 0.817 0.718 0.627 0.72 0.739
 United States of America 0.815 0.728 0.581 0.585 0.63
 Chile 0.814 0.758 0.573 0.706 0.58
 Jamaica 0.808 0.698 0.55 0.664 0.632
 Czech Republic 0.805 0.708 0.53 0.635 0.716
 Peru 0.803 0.691 0.585 0.579 0.509
 Barbados 0.798 0.684 0.35 0.688 0.663
 Armenia 0.786 0.597 0.469 0.635 0.634
 Cape Verde 0.776 0.69 0.479 0.641 0.616
 Malta 0.772 0.612 0.56 0.62 0.676
 Romania 0.76 0.552 0.572 0.379 0.543
 Trinidad and Tobago 0.755 0.643 0.484 0.685 0.609
 Croatia 0.753 0.641 0.526 0.574 0.588
 Panama 0.749 0.558 0.467 0.578 0.507
 Slovenia 0.748 0.651 0.551 0.572 0.607
 Senegal 0.747 0.583 0.404 0.618 0.559
 Vanuatu 0.745 0.64 0.452 0.627 0.571
 Suriname 0.737 0.595 0.453 0.6 0.537
 Israel 0.737 0.648 0.474 0.558 0.597
 Tunisia 0.727 0.644 0.476 0.67 0.571
 Burkina Faso 0.705 0.506 0.433 0.575 0.458
 South Africa 0.701 0.577 0.43 0.6 0.477
 Ghana 0.698 0.596 0.348 0.582 0.517
 Sao Tome and Principe 0.695 0.587 0.438 0.526 0.505
 Brazil 0.69 0.511 0.444 0.381 0.348
 Timor-Leste 0.66 0.464 0.392 0.459 0.421
 Namibia 0.648 0.524 0.385 0.483 0.38
 Solomon Islands 0.648 0.485 0.39 0.419 0.392
 Mexico 0.645 0.407 0.385 0.359 0.363
 Georgia 0.643 0.506 0.421 0.523 0.521
 Ecuador 0.638 0.485 0.452 0.465 0.426
 Mongolia 0.634 0.503 0.351 0.517 0.465
 North Macedonia 0.633 0.428 0.43 0.43 0.437
 Poland 0.632 0.487 0.418 0.375 0.538
 Lesotho 0.631 0.497 0.396 0.503 0.489
 Liberia 0.628 0.477 0.346 0.418 0.401
 Mauritius 0.625 0.504 0.395 0.552 0.49
 Moldova 0.623 0.467 0.402 0.377 0.433
 Kosovo 0.611 0.43 0.346 0.416 0.432
 Colombia 0.609 0.447 0.402 0.378 0.262
 Indonesia 0.608 0.448 0.396 0.546 0.328
 Sri Lanka 0.606 0.379 0.346 0.34 0.423
 Botswana 0.603 0.481 0.365 0.515 0.455
 Bulgaria 0.603 0.491 0.449 0.481 0.44
 Dominican Republic 0.594 0.344 0.387 0.469 0.288
 El Salvador 0.586 0.383 0.34 0.355 0.254
 Maldives 0.583 0.439 0.333 0.426 0.381
 Paraguay 0.581 0.426 0.361 0.358 0.255
 Guatemala 0.58 0.405 0.363 0.323 0.251
 Sierra Leone 0.574 0.435 0.39 0.535 0.391
 Seychelles 0.574 0.471 0.248 0.454 0.456
   Nepal 0.573 0.446 0.376 0.367 0.346
 Guyana 0.556 0.404 0.34 0.383 0.405
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.545 0.34 0.337 0.336 0.376
 Ukraine 0.544 0.348 0.35 0.435 0.389
 Nigeria 0.537 0.359 0.347 0.364 0.299
 Bhutan 0.537 0.458 0.334 0.458 0.455
 Guinea-Bissau 0.536 0.347 0.232 0.247 0.284
 Malawi 0.528 0.449 0.346 0.421 0.312
 Niger 0.521 0.389 0.292 0.485 0.353
 Ivory Coast 0.511 0.312 0.359 0.401 0.331
 The Gambia 0.504 0.419 0.305 0.374 0.372
 Albania 0.501 0.403 0.316 0.221 0.372
 Madagascar 0.487 0.269 0.283 0.281 0.216
 Hungary 0.467 0.368 0.32 0.253 0.338
 Mali 0.465 0.317 0.286 0.392 0.303
 Kenya 0.461 0.367 0.303 0.399 0.297
 Lebanon 0.458 0.286 0.265 0.342 0.252
 Montenegro 0.454 0.347 0.298 0.339 0.343
 India 0.45 0.34 0.278 0.267 0.259
 Benin 0.439 0.295 0.257 0.293 0.359
 Burma/Myanmar 0.435 0.271 0.271 0.349 0.254
 Philippines 0.433 0.28 0.292 0.373 0.205
 Papua New Guinea 0.422 0.336 0.254 0.262 0.204
 Togo 0.418 0.2 0.259 0.337 0.346
 Fiji 0.418 0.279 0.197 0.308 0.32
 Tanzania 0.409 0.327 0.233 0.337 0.33
 Mauritania 0.401 0.185 0.277 0.321 0.175
 Somaliland 0.4 0.248 0.25 0.225 0.171
 Malaysia 0.4 0.284 0.247 0.301 0.31
 Kyrgyzstan 0.399 0.291 0.235 0.241 0.288
 Haiti 0.393 0.235 0.222 0.265 0.12
 Singapore 0.389 0.307 0.104 0.34 0.337
 Gabon 0.38 0.207 0.263 0.29 0.3
 Central African Republic 0.379 0.214 0.159 0.232 0.191
 Mozambique 0.372 0.254 0.231 0.258 0.24
 Honduras 0.37 0.23 0.242 0.257 0.149
 Pakistan 0.368 0.25 0.242 0.346 0.127
 Afghanistan 0.366 0.192 0.151 0.289 0.142
 Iraq 0.365 0.22 0.235 0.255 0.179
 Comoros 0.36 0.173 0.254 0.278 0.275
 Democratic Republic of the Congo 0.359 0.157 0.217 0.293 0.187
 Angola 0.346 0.212 0.104 0.19 0.147
 Serbia 0.342 0.239 0.234 0.258 0.295
 Zambia 0.339 0.27 0.205 0.27 0.181
 Ethiopia 0.335 0.163 0.165 0.289 0.233
 Guinea 0.332 0.137 0.193 0.143 0.182
 Bolivia 0.324 0.23 0.266 0.245 0.228
 Kuwait 0.317 0.288 0.1 0.275 0.246
 Uganda 0.31 0.23 0.204 0.24 0.165
 Hong Kong 0.306 0.253 0.114 0.171 0.288
 Cameroon 0.297 0.124 0.114 0.157 0.22
 Zimbabwe 0.288 0.192 0.193 0.204 0.173
 Turkey 0.286 0.111 0.164 0.081 0.182
 Morocco 0.284 0.257 0.181 0.274 0.209
 Algeria 0.277 0.147 0.111 0.185 0.251
 Bangladesh 0.273 0.097 0.141 0.109 0.097
 Libya 0.272 0.153 0.132 0.241 0.193
 Jordan 0.268 0.242 0.126 0.224 0.241
 Chad 0.268 0.093 0.161 0.132 0.107
 Russia 0.261 0.104 0.186 0.137 0.213
 Djibouti 0.256 0.125 0.142 0.135 0.176
 Palestine/West Bank 0.256 0.164 0.186 0.224 0.21
 Zanzibar 0.253 0.185 0.139 0.241 0.22
 Nicaragua 0.251 0.062 0.145 0.039 0.17
 Republic of the Congo 0.248 0.119 0.195 0.207 0.138
 Kazakhstan 0.24 0.129 0.077 0.126 0.201
 Belarus 0.236 0.076 0.096 0.086 0.264
 Uzbekistan 0.227 0.105 0.073 0.194 0.172
 Vietnam 0.218 0.107 0.182 0.146 0.229
 Rwanda 0.212 0.107 0.14 0.177 0.196
 Venezuela 0.209 0.073 0.153 0.041 0.144
 Azerbaijan 0.201 0.066 0.067 0.042 0.126
 Cambodia 0.196 0.066 0.137 0.068 0.097
 Thailand 0.194 0.175 0.108 0.061 0.165
 South Sudan 0.191 0.07 0.085 0.054 0.042
 Iran 0.191 0.142 0.057 0.128 0.178
 Sudan 0.188 0.086 0.107 0.18 0.081
 Cuba 0.184 0.085 0.118 0.109 0.246
 Egypt 0.181 0.122 0.084 0.109 0.109
 Equatorial Guinea 0.179 0.056 0.053 0.049 0.113
 Tajikistan 0.177 0.047 0.066 0.063 0.077
 Oman 0.176 0.139 0.122 0.059 0.188
 Burundi 0.169 0.053 0.152 0.057 0.118
 Somalia 0.159 0.097 0.086 0.104 0.087
 Turkmenistan 0.152 0.042 0.035 0.034 0.106
 Palestine/Gaza 0.141 0.091 0.123 0.067 0.155
 Syria 0.139 0.037 0.056 0.024 0.073
 Eswatini 0.135 0.12 0.082 0.068 0.084
 Laos 0.121 0.09 0.109 0.061 0.124
 Bahrain 0.118 0.048 0.036 0.041 0.109
 Yemen 0.111 0.037 0.065 0.034 0.028
 United Arab Emirates 0.1 0.091 0.04 0.087 0.14
 North Korea 0.09 0.015 0.044 0.013 0.089
 Qatar 0.08 0.095 0.026 0.099 0.124
 China 0.075 0.043 0.053 0.111 0.088
 Eritrea 0.07 0.012 0.01 0.031 0.118
 Saudi Arabia 0.016 0.047 0.02 0.072 0.118

Impact and usage

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]

Digital Society Project

The Digital Society Project is a subset of indicators on V-Dem's survey which asks questions about the political status of social media and the internet.[11] Specifically, the Digital Society Project measures a range of questions related to internet censorship, misinformation online, and internet shutdowns.[14] This annual report includes 35 indicators assessing five areas: disinformation, digital media freedom, state regulation of digital media, polarization of online media, and online social cleavages.[15][16] It has been updated each year starting in 2019, with data covering from 2000-2021.[15] 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.[16]

References
  1. 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.
  2. 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
  3. List of all funders of the V-Dem Institute and which type of activities they have been funding.
  4. "Varieties of democracy (V-dem) - Varieties of democracy (V-dem), University of Gothenburg, Sweden".
  5. "New democracy dataset to 'revolutionize' democracy research".
  6. Tucker, Joshua. "Open data and (15 million!) new measures of democracy". Washington Post.
  7. 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.
  8. "New index rates countries by degree of freedom for scholars".
  9. "V-Dem: Autocratization continues but resistance grows". 25 March 2020.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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. "WGI-Documents". info.worldbank.org. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  14. Mechkova, V., Daniel P., Brigitte S.,&Steven W. (2020). Digital Society Project Dataset v2.Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project http://digitalsocietyproject.org/
  15. Mechkova, Valeriya; Pemstein, Daniel; Seim, Brigitte; Wilson, Steven (2021). Digital Society Survey Codebook (PDF). Digital Society Project.
  16. Fletcher, Terry; Hayes-Birchler, Andria (30 July 2020). Comparing Measures of Internet Censorship: Analyzing the Tradeoffs between Expert Analysis and Remote Measurement. "Data for Policy 2020".

Further reading

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