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Measuring Democracy - Eight indices: Polity, Freedom House and V-Dem

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  • Martin Paldam

    (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University)

Abstract

The paper is an empirical study of eight democracy indices and income. The aggregation problem for these indices is large, and thus the gray zone of measurement uncertainty is wide. The indices have no natural scale. Even the top anchor of full democracy is treated differently. In addition, the indices are conceptually different, use different scales, etc. However, they are still highly correlated. Income and all eight indices have one and only one common factor, which is the Democratic Transition, except in the OPEC/MENA sample. Within-project indices are even more correlated. Thus, the details of the assessments used by each project are more important than the conceptual differences. A country-by-country comparison is made of Polity and the Polyarchy index after it is converted to the Polity scale. Many countries are treated differently by the indices. The difference between the two is an estimate of the measurement uncertainty for democracy indices. It is almost three Polity points.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Paldam, 2021. "Measuring Democracy - Eight indices: Polity, Freedom House and V-Dem," Economics Working Papers 2021-10, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    • Handle: RePEc:aah:aarhec:2021-10
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    File URL: https://repec.econ.au.dk/repec/afn/wp/21/wp21_10.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Paldam,Martin, 2021. "The Grand Pattern of Development and the Transition of Institutions," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316515501.
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    Cited by:

    1. Janus, Thorsten, 2023. "Short and long run democracy diffusion," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Democracy indices; aggregation problem; democratic transition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • K10 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - General (Constitutional Law)
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

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