| Varieties of Democracy | - Narrow and broader: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, or egalitarian democracy
|
| Regimes of the World | - Narrow: electoral or liberal democracy
|
| Lexical Index | - Narrow: electoral (or liberal) democracy
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Narrow: electoral democracy
|
| Polity | - \tNarrow: electoral and liberal democracy
|
| Freedom House | - Narrow: electoral or liberal democracy
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Broad: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and effective democracy
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Broad: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and effective democracy
|
"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""We see that the approaches share a basic principle of democracy: a democracy is an electoral political system in which citizens get to participate in free and fair elections. The approaches also mostly agree that democracies are liberal political systems, in which citizens have additional civil rights and are protected from the state by constraining it."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Some approaches stop there, and stick to these narrower conceptions of democracy. Others characterize democracy in broader terms, and also see it as a participatory and deliberative (citizens engage in elections, civil society, and public discourse) as well as an effective (governments can act on citizens’ behalf) political system."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Varieties of Democracy — true to its name — offers both narrow and broader characterizations, by separately adding liberal, participatory, deliberative, as well as egalitarian (economic and social resources are equally distributed) political institutions to electoral democracy."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""horizontal-rule"", ""value"": {}, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""How is democracy scored?"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 1, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The approaches also differ in how they "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""children"": [{""text"": ""score"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-italic""}, {""text"": "" democracy."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""html"", ""value"": ""| Varieties of Democracy | - On a spectrum: 0 to 1, highly undemocratic to highly democratic
|
| Regimes of the World | - As a classification: closed autocracy < electoral autocracy < electoral democracy < liberal democracy
|
| Lexical Index | - As a classification: non-electoral autocracy < one-party autocracy < multi-party autocracy without elected executive < multi-party autocracy < exclusive democracy < male democracy < electoral democracy < polyarchy
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - As a classification: non-democracy < democracy
|
| Polity | - On a spectrum: -10 to 10, hereditary monarchy to consolidated democracy
- classification: autocracy < anocracy < democracy
|
| Freedom House | - As a classification; classification 1: not free < partly free < free
- classification 2: non-democracy < electoral democracy
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - On a spectrum: 1 to 10, highly undemocratic to highly democratic
- classification: hard-line autocracy < moderate autocracy < very defective democracy < defective democracy < consolidating democracy
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - On a spectrum: 0 to 10, highly undemocratic to 10 highly democratic
- classification: authoritarian regime < hybrid regime < flawed democracy < full democracy
|
"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""V-Dem treats democracy as a "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""children"": [{""text"": ""spectrum"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-bold""}, {""text"": "", with some countries being scored as more democratic than others."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Other approaches instead treat democracy as a binary, and "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""children"": [{""text"": ""classify"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-bold""}, {""text"": "" a country as either a democracy or not."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""A final group "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""children"": [{""text"": ""does both"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-bold""}, {""text"": "", using a spectrum of countries being more or less democratic, and setting thresholds above which a country is considered a democracy overall."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Approaches that classify countries into democracies and non-democracies further differ in whether all countries that are not democracies are considered autocracies or authoritarian regimes, or whether there are some countries that do not clearly belong in either group."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""And while Freedom in the World identifies which countries are electoral democracies in recent years, its main classification distinguishes between free, partly-free, and not-free countries (which many treat as a proxy for liberal democracy)."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Beyond these broad similarities in how the approaches characterize and score democracy, their exact definitions differ in smaller ways, too. If you are interested in the details, you can take a closer look at the specific defining characteristics at the end of this article."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""horizontal-rule"", ""value"": {}, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""What differences are captured?"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 1, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""How the approaches score democracy affects what differences in democracy they can capture."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""html"", ""value"": ""| Varieties of Democracy | - Years since 1789
- 202 countries, also non-independent
|
| Regimes of the World | - Years since 1789
- 202 countries, also non-independent
|
| Lexical Index | - Years since 1789
- 242 countries, also non-independent and microstates
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Years since 1800
- 218 countries, also microstates
|
| Polity | - Years 1800 — 2018
- 192 countries
|
| Freedom House | - Years since 1972
- 229 countries and territories, also microentities
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Years since 2005
- 138 countries and territories, no consolidated democracies
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Years since 2006
- 167 countries
|
"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""All approaches cover the recent past, but differ in how far they go back in time. BTI and EIU begin in the mid-2000s. Freedom in the World starts in the early 1970s. The other approaches go back to the beginning of the 19th century or even the late 18th century. The Regimes of the World data we ourselves extended "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""https://ourworldindata.org/regimes-of-the-world-data"", ""children"": [{""text"": ""back from 1900"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-link""}, {""text"": ""."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""All approaches cover most countries in the world. They differ in how comprehensive their coverage is: BTI excludes long-term members of the OECD (which it considers consolidated democracies), while all other approaches assess them. Some approaches also include very small states and territories, and some also assess many non-independent countries, usually colonies."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""#note-10"", ""children"": [{""children"": [{""text"": ""10"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-superscript""}], ""spanType"": ""span-ref""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""horizontal-rule"", ""value"": {}, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""How are democracy’s characteristics assessed?"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 1, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The approaches also differ in how they go about assessing the characteristics of democracy."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""html"", ""value"": ""| Varieties of Democracy | - Mostly through evaluations by experts; some easy-to-observe characteristics assessed by own researchers
- Then weighting, adding, and multiplying scores for (sub)characteristics
|
| Regimes of the World | - Mostly through evaluations by experts; some easy-to-observe characteristics assessed by own researchers
- Then evaluating whether necessary characteristics are (not) present
- Then weighting, adding, and multiplying scores for a few characteristics
|
| Lexical Index | - Mostly with easy-to-observe characteristics, few evaluations by own researchers based on academic research
- Then evaluating whether necessary characteristics are present or not
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Mostly with easy-to-observe characteristics, few evaluations by own researchers based on academic literature
- Then evaluating whether necessary characteristics are present or not
|
| Polity | - Mostly through evaluations by own researchers based on academic literature and news reports
- Then weighting and adding scores for characteristics
|
| Freedom House | - Mostly through evaluations by country and regional experts and own researchers based on different types of sources
- Free countries: then adding scores for (sub)characteristics
- Electoral democracies: then adding scores and evaluating whether necessary characteristics are present or not
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Mostly through evaluations by country, regional, and general experts, some evaluations by representative surveys of regular citizens
- Spectrum: then averaging of scores for (sub)characteristics
- Classification: then averaging and evaluating whether necessary characteristics are present or not
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Mostly through evaluations by own country experts, some evaluations by representative surveys of regular citizens
- Then averaging and minor weighting of scores for (sub)characteristics
|
"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Many rely on evaluations to assess democratic characteristics that are difficult to observe, such as whether elections were competitive and people were free to express their views."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Some rely on evaluations by country experts to assess whether, or to which extent, democracy’s characteristics are present (or not) in any given country and year. Others depend on evaluations by their own researchers reviewing the academic literature and news reports. And many use both country experts and their own teams."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""A few additionally incorporate some representative surveys of regular citizens."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The Lexical Index and the Boix-Miller-Rosato data meanwhile work to avoid difficult evaluations by either experts or researchers, and mostly have their own teams assess easy-to-observe characteristics — such as whether regular elections are held and several parties compete in them — to identify (non-)democracies."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Depending on whether they score democracy as a spectrum or classification, the approaches then aggregate the scores for specific characteristics: some average, add, and/or weigh the scores, others assess whether necessary characteristics are present, and a few do both."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""How do approaches work to make assessments valid?"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 2, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The next tables summarize how the approaches address the challenges that come with measuring democracy. The first challenge is to make their assessments valid — to actually measure what they want to capture."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""html"", ""value"": ""| Varieties of Democracy | - Experts (often nationals or residents) know country and characteristics well, own researchers know measurement procedures well
|
| Regimes of the World | - Experts (often nationals or residents) know country and characteristics well, own researchers know measurement procedures well
|
| Lexical Index | - Own researchers know measurement procedures well
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Own researchers know measurement procedures well
|
| Polity | - Own researchers know measurement well
|
| Freedom House | - Experts know country or region well, own researchers know measurement well
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Experts (about half of them local) know country well, regular citizens know their own experiences well
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Experts know country or region well, regular citizens know their own experiences well
|
"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The approaches go about measuring democracy differently because they weigh the challenges of measurement differently."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""For those mostly relying on experts, the priority is that democracy’s characteristics are evaluated by people that know the country well. For those relying on their own researchers, the priority is that the coders know the approach’s characterization of democracy and the measurement procedures well. And for those relying on representative surveys, capturing the difficult-to-observe lived realities of regular citizens is especially important."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""How do approaches work to make assessments precise?"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 2, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The approaches are also concerned with making their assessments in a precise and reliable manner."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""html"", ""value"": ""| Varieties of Democracy | - Several experts per country, year, and characteristic used (usually 5 or more since 1900, often 25 per country)
|
| Regimes of the World | - Several experts per country, year, and characteristic used (usually 5 or more since 1900, often 25 per country)
|
| Lexical Index | - Characteristics easy to understand and observe; subjective evaluation therefore mostly unnecessary
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - \tCharacteristics easy to understand and observe; subjective evaluation therefore mostly unnecessary
|
| Polity | |
| Freedom House | - More than 100 experts and researchers used in total; Experts and researchers rely on academic research, news and NGO reports, personal conversations, and on-the-ground research
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Two experts per country and year used
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - One or two experts per country and year used
|
"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Expert-based approaches therefore often recruit many experts in total, several experts per country, or even several to many experts per country, year and characteristic."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Own-researcher-based approaches instead either focus more on making difficult subjective evaluation mostly unnecessary, or encourage their teams to rely on many different secondary sources, such as country-specific academic research, news reports, and personal conversations."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""How do approaches work to make assessments comparable?"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 2, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The approaches also face the challenge of how to make the coders’ respective assessments comparable across countries and time."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""html"", ""value"": ""| Varieties of Democracy | - Experts answer very specific questions about sub-characteristics on completely explained scale
- Experts also code hypothetical countries and many code several countries, denote own uncertainty and personal demographic information
- Project investigated expert biases and found them to be limited
|
| Regimes of the World | - Experts answer very specific questions about sub-characteristics on completely explained scale
- Experts also code hypothetical examples and many code several countries, denote own uncertainty and personal attributes
- Project investigated expert biases and found them to be limited
|
| Lexical Index | - Researchers answer specific questions about characteristics on explained scale
- Same researcher assesses all countries and years
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Same researcher assesses all countries and years
|
| Polity | - Experts answer specific questions about characteristics on completely explained scale
|
| Freedom House | - Experts answer questions about characteristics separately
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Experts answer specific questions about sub-characteristics on explained scale
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Experts answer specific questions about sub-characteristics on completely explained scale
|
"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The surveys therefore ask the experts questions about specific characteristics of democracy, such as the presence or absence of election fraud, instead of making them rely on their broad impressions. They also explain the scales on which the characteristics are scored, and often all of the scales’ values."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Measuring many specific low-level characteristics also helps users understand why a country received a specific score, and it allows them to create new measures tailored to their own interests."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""How are remaining differences dealt with?"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 2, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The approaches then all work to address any remaining differences between coders, even if they do so differently."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""html"", ""value"": ""| Varieties of Democracy | - Measurement model uses main and additional information and provides estimates of remaining measurement uncertainty
|
| Regimes of the World | - Measurement model uses main and additional information and provides estimates of remaining measurement uncertainty
|
| Lexical Index | - One primary coder, so no differences between coders to be reconciled
- Second researcher for some countries reproduced most assessments
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - One primary coder, so no differences between coders to be reconciled
- For recent years discussions among researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
|
| Polity | - Discussions among researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
- Separate researcher teams for some countries and years reproduced most assessments
|
| Freedom House | - Discussions among experts and researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Discussions among regional and general experts and own researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Discussions among experts and researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
|
"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""V-Dem and RoW work with a statistical model which uses the experts’ ratings of actual countries and hypothetical country examples, as well as the experts’ stated uncertainties and personal demographics to produce both best and upper- and lower-bound estimates of many characteristics."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""They thereby avoid forcing themselves to eliminate all uncertainty and thereby possibly biasing their scores, and acknowledge that its coders make errors. This also recognizes that small differences in democracy on fine-grained spectrums may actually not exist, or be reversed, because measurement is uncertain."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Most other approaches go about it differently, and have researchers and experts discuss differing scores to reconcile them. This adds an additional step to make the assessments comparable across coders, countries, and years."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""And while it uses discussions, Freedom in the World still acknowledges that it refined its approach over time, which makes its scores not as readily comparable: they work best for comparing different countries at the same time, or comparing the same country over the course of a few years."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The Lexical Index and Polity meanwhile do not have several coders per country and year, but they still worked to assess coding differences by once having its researchers rate some countries independently and compare their results. Reassuringly, they found that they came to similar conclusions."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""How do approaches work to make data accessible and transparent?"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 2, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Finally, the approaches all take steps to make their data accessible and the underlying measurement transparent."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""html"", ""value"": ""| Varieties of Democracy | - Provides data for sub-indices and several hundred specific questions by country-year, country-date, and coder
- Detailed questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics and their combination in detail
|
| Regimes of the World | - Provides data for sub-indices and several hundred specific questions by country-year, country-date, and coder
- Detailed questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics and their combination
|
| Lexical Index | - Provides disaggregated data for specific questions by country-year
- Questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies in detail democracy characteristics and their combination
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Provides data by country-year
- Questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics and their combination
|
| Polity | - Provides disaggregated data for sub-indices and specific questions by country-year
- Detailed questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Explains scores with country reports
|
| Freedom House | - Provides recent disaggregated data for sub-indices and specific questions by country-year
- Questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics
- Explains scores with country reports
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Provides disaggregated data for sub-indices and specific questions by country-year
- Detailed questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics and their combination
- Explains scores with country reports
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Provides disaggregated data for sub-indices by country-year
- Questions and coding procedures are available
- Justifies democracy characteristics
|
"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""All approaches publicly release their data and almost all make the data straightforward to download and use. Most approaches release not only the overall classification and scores, but also the underlying (sub)characteristics. V-Dem even releases the data coded by each (anonymous) expert."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Almost all release descriptions of how they characterize democracy, as well as the questions and coding procedures guiding the experts and researchers. V-Dem again stands out here for its very detailed descriptions that also discuss why it weighs, adds, and multiplies the scores for specific characteristics."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Polity, Freedom in the World, and BTI meanwhile provide additional helpful information by explaining their quantitative scores in country reports that discuss influential events."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""horizontal-rule"", ""value"": {}, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""The best democracy measure depends on your questions"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 1, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""There is no single ‘best’ approach to measuring democracy. Conceptions of democracy are too different, and the challenges of measurement are too diverse for that. All of the approaches put a lot of effort into measuring democracy in ways that are useful to researchers, policymakers, and interested citizens."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""The most appropriate democracy measure depends on what question you want to answer. It is the one that captures the characteristics of democracy and the countries and years you are interested in."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""If you are interested in big and small differences in varieties of democracy, far into the past, and want to use country experts to measure characteristics of political systems that are difficult to observe, the Varieties of Democracy data is best."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""If you are instead interested in big differences in political regimes over the last two hundred years, and want to use the knowledge of country experts, the Regimes of the World data is best."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""If you rather want to explore medium differences in political regimes, especially in the 19th and earlier 20th century, and want to rely more on characteristics that are easier to observe, the Lexical Index ist best."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""And if you want to study big differences in political regimes, drawing on easier-to-observe features of political systems, the Boix-Miller-Rosato data is best."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""If you instead want to explore the source that was researchers’ go-to for democracy for a long time, and are fine with its less precise data, Polity is best."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""If you especially care about the political and civil freedoms that democracy grants, Freedom House is best."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""If you value a broad understanding of democracy that encompasses its electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and effective dimensions, then the Bertelsmann Transformation Index is best."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""And if you want to use a broad understanding of democracy to study it both in countries where it is older and those in which it is young or absent, then the Economist Intelligence Unit is best."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Even if you have a preferred source, it can still be useful to see what other sources show and where they agree and differ."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""This means that having several approaches to measuring democracy is not a flaw, but a strength: it gives us different tools to understand the past spread, current state, and possible future of democracy around the world."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""If you want to explore the data that each of these datasets produce, you can do so in our "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/democracy"", ""children"": [{""text"": ""Democracy Data Explorer"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-link""}, {""text"": ""."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""And if you want to compare the sources directly, you can do so in these charts:"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""left"": [{""url"": ""https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-by-source"", ""type"": ""chart"", ""parseErrors"": []}], ""type"": ""side-by-side"", ""right"": [{""url"": ""https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/political-regime-classification-by-source"", ""type"": ""chart"", ""parseErrors"": []}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""text"": [{""text"": ""Keep reading at "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""children"": [{""text"": ""Our World in Data"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-italic""}], ""type"": ""heading"", ""level"": 2, ""parseErrors"": []}, {""url"": ""https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/democracy"", ""type"": ""prominent-link"", ""title"": ""Democracy Data Explorer"", ""thumbnail"": ""democracy-data-how-do-reasearchers-measure-democracy-featured-image.png"", ""description"": ""Explore the world’s political systems with the leading approaches of measuring democracy."", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""url"": ""https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xO9wHbwM5LKlGFbHyet3CLmiqnI3ZOHS8V3P_81Itf4/edit"", ""type"": ""prominent-link"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""url"": ""https://docs.google.com/document/d/14zTYMg-mkPcMC68DqgQNb1eAe8VBwoD93yzyKGIeguw/edit"", ""type"": ""prominent-link"", ""parseErrors"": []}, {""url"": 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"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2022/"", ""children"": [{""text"": ""Democracy Index 2022: Frontline democracy and the battle for Ukraine."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-link""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Elff, Martin, and Sebastian Ziaja. 2018. "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Elff%2C+Martin%2C+and+Sebastian+Ziaja.+2018.+Method+Factors+in+Democracy+Indicators.+Politics+and+Governance+6%281%29%3A+105-116.&btnG="", ""children"": [{""text"": ""Method Factors in Democracy Indicators"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-link""}, {""text"": "". Politics and Governance 6(1): 105-116."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Freedom House. 2022. 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"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""children"": [{""text"": ""Political Analysis"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-italic""}, {""text"": ""."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Møller, Jørgen and Svend-Erik Skaaning. 2021. "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=M%C3%B8ller%2C+J%C3%B8rgen+and+Svend-Erik+Skaaning.+2021.+Varieties+of+Measurement%3A+A+Comparative+Assessment+of+Relatively+New+Democracy+Ratings+based+on+Original+Data.+V-Dem+Working+Paper+123.&btnG="", ""children"": [{""text"": ""Varieties of Measurement: A Comparative Assessment of Relatively New Democracy Ratings based on Original Data"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-link""}, {""text"": "". V-Dem Working Paper 123."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Skaaning, Svend-Erik. 2018. "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Skaaning%2C+Svend-Erik.+2018.+Different+Types+of+Data+and+the+Validity+of+Democracy+Measures.+Politics+and+Governance+6%281%29%3A+105-116.&btnG="", ""children"": [{""text"": ""Different Types of Data and the Validity of Democracy Measures"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-link""}, {""text"": "". Politics and Governance 6(1): 105-116.Skaaning, Svend-Erik. 2021. 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Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Natalia Natsika, Anja Neundorf, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Josefine Pernes, Oskar Rydén, 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. 2024. \"""", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Coppedge%2C+Michael%2C+John+Gerring%2C+Carl+Henrik+Knutsen%2C+Staffan+I.+Lindberg%2C+Jan+Teorell%2C+David+Altman%2C+Fabio+Angiolillo%2C+Michael+Bernhard%2C+Cecilia+Borella%2C+Agnes+Cornell%2C+M.+Steven+Fish%2C+Linnea+Fox%2C+Lisa+Gastaldi%2C+Haakon+Gjerl%C3%B8w%2C+Adam+Glynn%2C+Ana+Good+God%2C+Sandra+Grahn%2C+Allen+Hicken%2C+Katrin+Kinzelbach%2C+Joshua+Krusell%2C+Kyle+L.+Marquardt%2C+Kelly+McMann%2C+Valeriya+Mechkova%2C+Juraj+Medzihorsky%2C+Natalia+Natsika%2C+Anja+Neundorf%2C+Pamela+Paxton%2C+Daniel+Pemstein%2C+Josefine+Pernes%2C+Oskar+Ryd%C3%A9n%2C+Johannes+von+R%C3%B6mer%2C+Brigitte+Seim%2C+Rachel+Sigman%2C+Svend-Erik+Skaaning%2C+Jeffrey+Staton%2C+Aksel+Sundstr%C3%B6m%2C+Eitan+Tzelgov%2C+Yi-ting+Wang%2C+Tore+Wig%2C+Steven+Wilson+and+Daniel+Ziblatt.+2024.+%22V-Dem+Country-Year+Dataset+v14%22+Varieties+of+Democracy+%28V-Dem%29+Project.+https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.23696%2Fmcwt-fr58&btnG="", ""children"": [{""text"": ""V-Dem Country-Year Dataset v14"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-link""}, {""text"": ""\"" Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/mcwt-fr58"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}, {""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Pemstein, Daniel, Kyle L. Marquardt, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Juraj Medzihorsky, Joshua Krusell, Farhad Miri, and Johannes von Römer. 2024. “"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Pemstein%2C+Daniel%2C+Kyle+L.+Marquardt%2C+Eitan+Tzelgov%2C+Yi-ting+Wang%2C+Juraj+Medzihorsky%2C+Joshua+Krusell%2C+Farhad+Miri%2C+and+Johannes+von+R%C3%B6mer.+2024.+%E2%80%9CThe+V-Dem+Measurement+Model%3A+Latent+Variable+Analysis+for+Cross-National+and+Cross-Temporal+Expert-Coded+Data%E2%80%9D.+V-Dem+Working+Paper+No.+21.+9th+edition.+University+of+Gothenburg%3A+Varieties+of+Democracy+Institute.&btnG="", ""children"": [{""text"": ""The V-Dem Measurement Model: Latent Variable Analysis for Cross-National and Cross-Temporal Expert-Coded Data"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-link""}, {""text"": ""”. V-Dem Working Paper No. 21. 9th edition. University of Gothenburg: Varieties of Democracy Institute."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}], ""parseErrors"": []}, ""fc29ef02a8112cf544a7007baac240c4774c1b12"": {""id"": ""fc29ef02a8112cf544a7007baac240c4774c1b12"", ""index"": 2, ""content"": [{""type"": ""text"", ""value"": [{""text"": ""Skaaning, Svend-Erik, John Gerring, and Henrikas Bartusevičius. 2015. "", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}, {""url"": ""https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Skaaning%2C+Svend-Erik%2C+John+Gerring%2C+and+Henrikas+Bartusevi%C4%8Dius.+2015.+A+Lexical+Index+of+Electoral+Democracy.+Comparative+Political+Studies+48%2812%29%3A+1491-1525&btnG="", ""children"": [{""text"": ""A Lexical Index of Electoral Democracy"", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""spanType"": ""span-link""}, {""text"": "". Comparative Political Studies 48(12): 1491-1525."", ""spanType"": ""span-simple-text""}], ""parseErrors"": []}], ""parseErrors"": []}}}, ""type"": ""article"", ""title"": ""Democracy data: how sources differ and when to use which one"", ""authors"": [""Bastian Herre""], ""excerpt"": ""There are many ways to classify and measure political systems. What approaches do different sources take? And when is which approach best?"", ""dateline"": ""originally published on June 17, 2022 (last updated in April 2024)"", ""subtitle"": ""There are many ways to classify and measure political systems. What approaches do different sources take? And when is which approach best?"", ""featured-image"": ""democracy-data-how-do-reasearchers-measure-democracy-featured-image.png""}",1,2023-07-21 16:10:29,2022-06-17 07:24:25,2024-02-27 15:15:07,unlisted,ALBJ4LtV3LLmyT-uK-nRvj8NHdMzsCJGoFRsxj3DYNYtDTuqjNYn-UFIjQKlVhXVIrITGWpnE9yno6GCySTMGA,,"Measuring the state of democracy across the world helps us understand the extent to which people have political rights and freedoms.
But measuring how democratic a country is, comes with many challenges. People do not always agree on what characteristics define a democracy. These characteristics — such as whether an election was free and fair — even once defined, are difficult to assess. The judgement of experts is to some degree subjective and they may disagree; either about a specific characteristic, or how several characteristics can be reduced into a single measure of democracy.
So how do researchers address these challenges and identify which countries are democratic and undemocratic?
In our work on [Democracy](https://ourworldindata.org/democracy), we provide data from eight leading approaches of measuring democracy:
* [Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem)](https://www.v-dem.net/vdemds.html) by the V-Dem project1
* [Regimes of the World (RoW)](https://www.v-dem.net/vdemds.html) by Lührmann et al. (2018)2, which use V-Dem data
* [Lexical Index of Electoral Democracy (LIED)](https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/WPKNIT) by Skaaning et al. (2015)3
* [Boix-Miller-Rosato](https://sites.google.com/site/mkmtwo/data?authuser=0) by Boix et al. (2013, BMR)4
* [Polity](https://www.systemicpeace.org/inscrdata.html) by the Center for Systemic Peace5
* Freedom House’s (FH) [Freedom in the World](https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world)6
* [Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI)](https://bti-project.org/en/downloads) by the Bertelsmann Foundation7
* Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) [Democracy Index](https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2021/?utm_source=eiu-website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=democracy-index-2021)8
These approaches all measure democracy (or a closely related aspect), they cover many countries and years, and are commonly used by researchers and policymakers.
You can delve into their data — the main democracy measures, indicators of specific characteristics, and global and regional overviews — in our [Democracy Data Explorer](https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/democracy).
Reassuringly, the approaches typically agree about big differences in countries’ political institutions: they readily distinguish between highly democratic countries, such as Chile and Norway, and highly undemocratic countries, such as North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
But they do not always agree. They come to different assessments about which of the two highly democratic countries – Chile and Norway – is more democratic, and whether Chile is more or less democratic than it was ten years ago. At times they come to strikingly different conclusions about countries that are neither highly democratic nor highly undemocratic, such as Nigeria today or the United States in the 19th century.
Why do these measures sometimes reach such different conclusions? In this article I summarize the key similarities and differences of these approaches, and discuss when each source is best.
---
# How is democracy characterized?
In this and the following tables I summarize how each approach defines and scores democracy, and what coverage each approach provides.9
| Varieties of Democracy | - Narrow and broader: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, or egalitarian democracy
|
| Regimes of the World | - Narrow: electoral or liberal democracy
|
| Lexical Index | - Narrow: electoral (or liberal) democracy
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Narrow: electoral democracy
|
| Polity | - Narrow: electoral and liberal democracy
|
| Freedom House | - Narrow: electoral or liberal democracy
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Broad: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and effective democracy
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Broad: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and effective democracy
|
We see that the approaches share a basic principle of democracy: a democracy is an electoral political system in which citizens get to participate in free and fair elections. The approaches also mostly agree that democracies are liberal political systems, in which citizens have additional civil rights and are protected from the state by constraining it.
Some approaches stop there, and stick to these narrower conceptions of democracy. Others characterize democracy in broader terms, and also see it as a participatory and deliberative (citizens engage in elections, civil society, and public discourse) as well as an effective (governments can act on citizens’ behalf) political system.
Varieties of Democracy — true to its name — offers both narrow and broader characterizations, by separately adding liberal, participatory, deliberative, as well as egalitarian (economic and social resources are equally distributed) political institutions to electoral democracy.
---
# How is democracy scored?
The approaches also differ in how they _score_ democracy.
| Varieties of Democracy | - On a spectrum: 0 to 1, highly undemocratic to highly democratic
|
| Regimes of the World | - As a classification: closed autocracy < electoral autocracy < electoral democracy < liberal democracy
|
| Lexical Index | - As a classification: non-electoral autocracy < one-party autocracy < multi-party autocracy without elected executive < multi-party autocracy < exclusive democracy < male democracy < electoral democracy < polyarchy
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - As a classification: non-democracy < democracy
|
| Polity | - On a spectrum: -10 to 10, hereditary monarchy to consolidated democracy
- classification: autocracy < anocracy < democracy
|
| Freedom House | - As a classification; classification 1: not free < partly free < free
- classification 2: non-democracy < electoral democracy
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - On a spectrum: 1 to 10, highly undemocratic to highly democratic
- classification: hard-line autocracy < moderate autocracy < very defective democracy < defective democracy < consolidating democracy
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - On a spectrum: 0 to 10, highly undemocratic to 10 highly democratic
- classification: authoritarian regime < hybrid regime < flawed democracy < full democracy
|
V-Dem treats democracy as a **spectrum**, with some countries being scored as more democratic than others.
Other approaches instead treat democracy as a binary, and **classify** a country as either a democracy or not.
A final group **does both**, using a spectrum of countries being more or less democratic, and setting thresholds above which a country is considered a democracy overall.
Approaches that classify countries into democracies and non-democracies further differ in whether all countries that are not democracies are considered autocracies or authoritarian regimes, or whether there are some countries that do not clearly belong in either group.
And while Freedom in the World identifies which countries are electoral democracies in recent years, its main classification distinguishes between free, partly-free, and not-free countries (which many treat as a proxy for liberal democracy).
Beyond these broad similarities in how the approaches characterize and score democracy, their exact definitions differ in smaller ways, too. If you are interested in the details, you can take a closer look at the specific defining characteristics at the end of this article.
---
# What differences are captured?
How the approaches score democracy affects what differences in democracy they can capture.
| Varieties of Democracy | - Years since 1789
- 202 countries, also non-independent
|
| Regimes of the World | - Years since 1789
- 202 countries, also non-independent
|
| Lexical Index | - Years since 1789
- 242 countries, also non-independent and microstates
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Years since 1800
- 218 countries, also microstates
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| Polity | - Years 1800 — 2018
- 192 countries
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| Freedom House | - Years since 1972
- 229 countries and territories, also microentities
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| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Years since 2005
- 138 countries and territories, no consolidated democracies
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| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Years since 2006
- 167 countries
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All approaches cover the recent past, but differ in how far they go back in time. BTI and EIU begin in the mid-2000s. Freedom in the World starts in the early 1970s. The other approaches go back to the beginning of the 19th century or even the late 18th century. The Regimes of the World data we ourselves extended [back from 1900](https://ourworldindata.org/regimes-of-the-world-data).
All approaches cover most countries in the world. They differ in how comprehensive their coverage is: BTI excludes long-term members of the OECD (which it considers consolidated democracies), while all other approaches assess them. Some approaches also include very small states and territories, and some also assess many non-independent countries, usually colonies.10
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# How are democracy’s characteristics assessed?
The approaches also differ in how they go about assessing the characteristics of democracy.
| Varieties of Democracy | - Mostly through evaluations by experts; some easy-to-observe characteristics assessed by own researchers
- Then weighting, adding, and multiplying scores for (sub)characteristics
|
| Regimes of the World | - Mostly through evaluations by experts; some easy-to-observe characteristics assessed by own researchers
- Then evaluating whether necessary characteristics are (not) present
- Then weighting, adding, and multiplying scores for a few characteristics
|
| Lexical Index | - Mostly with easy-to-observe characteristics, few evaluations by own researchers based on academic research
- Then evaluating whether necessary characteristics are present or not
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Mostly with easy-to-observe characteristics, few evaluations by own researchers based on academic literature
- Then evaluating whether necessary characteristics are present or not
|
| Polity | - Mostly through evaluations by own researchers based on academic literature and news reports
- Then weighting and adding scores for characteristics
|
| Freedom House | - Mostly through evaluations by country and regional experts and own researchers based on different types of sources
- Free countries: then adding scores for (sub)characteristics
- Electoral democracies: then adding scores and evaluating whether necessary characteristics are present or not
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Mostly through evaluations by country, regional, and general experts, some evaluations by representative surveys of regular citizens
- Spectrum: then averaging of scores for (sub)characteristics
- Classification: then averaging and evaluating whether necessary characteristics are present or not
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Mostly through evaluations by own country experts, some evaluations by representative surveys of regular citizens
- Then averaging and minor weighting of scores for (sub)characteristics
|
Many rely on evaluations to assess democratic characteristics that are difficult to observe, such as whether elections were competitive and people were free to express their views.
Some rely on evaluations by country experts to assess whether, or to which extent, democracy’s characteristics are present (or not) in any given country and year. Others depend on evaluations by their own researchers reviewing the academic literature and news reports. And many use both country experts and their own teams.
A few additionally incorporate some representative surveys of regular citizens.
The Lexical Index and the Boix-Miller-Rosato data meanwhile work to avoid difficult evaluations by either experts or researchers, and mostly have their own teams assess easy-to-observe characteristics — such as whether regular elections are held and several parties compete in them — to identify (non-)democracies.
Depending on whether they score democracy as a spectrum or classification, the approaches then aggregate the scores for specific characteristics: some average, add, and/or weigh the scores, others assess whether necessary characteristics are present, and a few do both.
## How do approaches work to make assessments valid?
The next tables summarize how the approaches address the challenges that come with measuring democracy. The first challenge is to make their assessments valid — to actually measure what they want to capture.
| Varieties of Democracy | - Experts (often nationals or residents) know country and characteristics well, own researchers know measurement procedures well
|
| Regimes of the World | - Experts (often nationals or residents) know country and characteristics well, own researchers know measurement procedures well
|
| Lexical Index | - Own researchers know measurement procedures well
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Own researchers know measurement procedures well
|
| Polity | - Own researchers know measurement well
|
| Freedom House | - Experts know country or region well, own researchers know measurement well
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Experts (about half of them local) know country well, regular citizens know their own experiences well
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Experts know country or region well, regular citizens know their own experiences well
|
The approaches go about measuring democracy differently because they weigh the challenges of measurement differently.
For those mostly relying on experts, the priority is that democracy’s characteristics are evaluated by people that know the country well. For those relying on their own researchers, the priority is that the coders know the approach’s characterization of democracy and the measurement procedures well. And for those relying on representative surveys, capturing the difficult-to-observe lived realities of regular citizens is especially important.
## How do approaches work to make assessments precise?
The approaches are also concerned with making their assessments in a precise and reliable manner.
| Varieties of Democracy | - Several experts per country, year, and characteristic used (usually 5 or more since 1900, often 25 per country)
|
| Regimes of the World | - Several experts per country, year, and characteristic used (usually 5 or more since 1900, often 25 per country)
|
| Lexical Index | - Characteristics easy to understand and observe; subjective evaluation therefore mostly unnecessary
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Characteristics easy to understand and observe; subjective evaluation therefore mostly unnecessary
|
| Polity | |
| Freedom House | - More than 100 experts and researchers used in total; Experts and researchers rely on academic research, news and NGO reports, personal conversations, and on-the-ground research
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Two experts per country and year used
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - One or two experts per country and year used
|
Expert-based approaches therefore often recruit many experts in total, several experts per country, or even several to many experts per country, year and characteristic.
Own-researcher-based approaches instead either focus more on making difficult subjective evaluation mostly unnecessary, or encourage their teams to rely on many different secondary sources, such as country-specific academic research, news reports, and personal conversations.
## How do approaches work to make assessments comparable?
The approaches also face the challenge of how to make the coders’ respective assessments comparable across countries and time.
| Varieties of Democracy | - Experts answer very specific questions about sub-characteristics on completely explained scale
- Experts also code hypothetical countries and many code several countries, denote own uncertainty and personal demographic information
- Project investigated expert biases and found them to be limited
|
| Regimes of the World | - Experts answer very specific questions about sub-characteristics on completely explained scale
- Experts also code hypothetical examples and many code several countries, denote own uncertainty and personal attributes
- Project investigated expert biases and found them to be limited
|
| Lexical Index | - Researchers answer specific questions about characteristics on explained scale
- Same researcher assesses all countries and years
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Same researcher assesses all countries and years
|
| Polity | - Experts answer specific questions about characteristics on completely explained scale
|
| Freedom House | - Experts answer questions about characteristics separately
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Experts answer specific questions about sub-characteristics on explained scale
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Experts answer specific questions about sub-characteristics on completely explained scale
|
The surveys therefore ask the experts questions about specific characteristics of democracy, such as the presence or absence of election fraud, instead of making them rely on their broad impressions. They also explain the scales on which the characteristics are scored, and often all of the scales’ values.
Measuring many specific low-level characteristics also helps users understand why a country received a specific score, and it allows them to create new measures tailored to their own interests.
## How are remaining differences dealt with?
The approaches then all work to address any remaining differences between coders, even if they do so differently.
| Varieties of Democracy | - Measurement model uses main and additional information and provides estimates of remaining measurement uncertainty
|
| Regimes of the World | - Measurement model uses main and additional information and provides estimates of remaining measurement uncertainty
|
| Lexical Index | - One primary coder, so no differences between coders to be reconciled
- Second researcher for some countries reproduced most assessments
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| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - One primary coder, so no differences between coders to be reconciled
- For recent years discussions among researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
|
| Polity | - Discussions among researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
- Separate researcher teams for some countries and years reproduced most assessments
|
| Freedom House | - Discussions among experts and researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Discussions among regional and general experts and own researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Discussions among experts and researchers reconcile different standards across coders, countries, and years
|
V-Dem and RoW work with a statistical model which uses the experts’ ratings of actual countries and hypothetical country examples, as well as the experts’ stated uncertainties and personal demographics to produce both best and upper- and lower-bound estimates of many characteristics.
They thereby avoid forcing themselves to eliminate all uncertainty and thereby possibly biasing their scores, and acknowledge that its coders make errors. This also recognizes that small differences in democracy on fine-grained spectrums may actually not exist, or be reversed, because measurement is uncertain.
Most other approaches go about it differently, and have researchers and experts discuss differing scores to reconcile them. This adds an additional step to make the assessments comparable across coders, countries, and years.
And while it uses discussions, Freedom in the World still acknowledges that it refined its approach over time, which makes its scores not as readily comparable: they work best for comparing different countries at the same time, or comparing the same country over the course of a few years.
The Lexical Index and Polity meanwhile do not have several coders per country and year, but they still worked to assess coding differences by once having its researchers rate some countries independently and compare their results. Reassuringly, they found that they came to similar conclusions.
## How do approaches work to make data accessible and transparent?
Finally, the approaches all take steps to make their data accessible and the underlying measurement transparent.
| Varieties of Democracy | - Provides data for sub-indices and several hundred specific questions by country-year, country-date, and coder
- Detailed questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics and their combination in detail
|
| Regimes of the World | - Provides data for sub-indices and several hundred specific questions by country-year, country-date, and coder
- Detailed questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics and their combination
|
| Lexical Index | - Provides disaggregated data for specific questions by country-year
- Questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies in detail democracy characteristics and their combination
|
| Boix-Miller-Rosato | - Provides data by country-year
- Questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics and their combination
|
| Polity | - Provides disaggregated data for sub-indices and specific questions by country-year
- Detailed questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Explains scores with country reports
|
| Freedom House | - Provides recent disaggregated data for sub-indices and specific questions by country-year
- Questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics
- Explains scores with country reports
|
| Bertelsmann Transformation Index | - Provides disaggregated data for sub-indices and specific questions by country-year
- Detailed questions and coding procedures are available and easy to access
- Justifies democracy characteristics and their combination
- Explains scores with country reports
|
| Economist Intelligence Unit | - Provides disaggregated data for sub-indices by country-year
- Questions and coding procedures are available
- Justifies democracy characteristics
|
All approaches publicly release their data and almost all make the data straightforward to download and use. Most approaches release not only the overall classification and scores, but also the underlying (sub)characteristics. V-Dem even releases the data coded by each (anonymous) expert.
Almost all release descriptions of how they characterize democracy, as well as the questions and coding procedures guiding the experts and researchers. V-Dem again stands out here for its very detailed descriptions that also discuss why it weighs, adds, and multiplies the scores for specific characteristics.
Polity, Freedom in the World, and BTI meanwhile provide additional helpful information by explaining their quantitative scores in country reports that discuss influential events.
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# The best democracy measure depends on your questions
There is no single ‘best’ approach to measuring democracy. Conceptions of democracy are too different, and the challenges of measurement are too diverse for that. All of the approaches put a lot of effort into measuring democracy in ways that are useful to researchers, policymakers, and interested citizens.
The most appropriate democracy measure depends on what question you want to answer. It is the one that captures the characteristics of democracy and the countries and years you are interested in.
This means that having several approaches to measuring democracy is not a flaw, but a strength: it gives us different tools to understand the past spread, current state, and possible future of democracy around the world.
If you are interested in big and small differences in varieties of democracy, far into the past, and want to use country experts to measure characteristics of political systems that are difficult to observe, the Varieties of Democracy data is best.
If you are instead interested in big differences in political regimes over the last two hundred years, and want to use the knowledge of country experts, the Regimes of the World data is best.
If you rather want to explore medium differences in political regimes, especially in the 19th and earlier 20th century, and want to rely more on characteristics that are easier to observe, the Lexical Index ist best.
And if you want to study big differences in political regimes, drawing on easier-to-observe features of political systems, the Boix-Miller-Rosato data is best.
If you instead want to explore the source that was researchers’ go-to for democracy for a long time, and are fine with its less precise data, Polity is best.
If you especially care about the political and civil freedoms that democracy grants, Freedom House is best.
If you value a broad understanding of democracy that encompasses its electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and effective dimensions, then the Bertelsmann Transformation Index is best.
And if you want to use a broad understanding of democracy to study it both in countries where it is older and those in which it is young or absent, then the Economist Intelligence Unit is best.
If you want to explore the data that each of these datasets produce, you can do so in our [Democracy Data Explorer](https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/democracy).
And if you want to compare the sources directly, you can do so in these charts: