Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Special Edition
Welcome to the February 2019 DRG Learning Quarterly, the newsletter that will keep you informed on new learning, evaluation, and research in the DRG sector.
This edition of the Learning Quarterly features Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) research using a database established by the V-Dem Institute, based in the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. The V-Dem Institute has established a novel approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy (in addition to liberal democracy and electoral democracy, there five other types!) in addition to creating a free, public database containing over 19 million data points that covers 201 countries from 1789-2017. V-Dem research can improve how governments, development agencies and NGOs design effective programs, conduct country assessments and evaluate the impact of development assistance in the DRG sector. The DRG Learning Division is working with V-Dem on a number of research products, country data portraits, regional trend analyses and online data visualization tools.
The reports highlighted in this quarterly examine the relationship between media and civil society for government accountability and risk of autocratization, aid and corruption, inclusion and economic growth, as well as women in governance and human development.
The primary findings from this research are:
- Media and Civil Society: As a government's accountability to media and civil society (i.e., diagonal accountability) increases, political elites initially try to maintain power and countries are prone to backsliding. Eventually, however, the cost of suppressing media and civil society crosses a tipping point, and risk of autocratization is diminished.
- Anti-Corruption: Sometimes foreign aid may expand avenues for corruption, but the type of aid and category of corruption have varied and nuanced findings.
- Social Inclusion: Greater political power for women and the LGBT community is positively associated with stronger economic development.
- Women's Empowerment: Greater political empowerment for women is significantly associated with lower infant mortality rates, higher life expectancy and higher average years of education.