Compare methods
Review your selected methods side by side; rows that differ are highlighted.
| Polity Score Analysis× | V-Dem Democracy Measurement× | |
|---|---|---|
| Field | International Relations | International Relations |
| Family | Process / pipeline | Process / pipeline |
| Year of origin≠ | 2020 | 2011 |
| Originator≠ | Ted Robert Gurr, Monty Marshall & Keith Jaggers (Center for Systemic Peace) | V-Dem Institute (Michael Coppedge, John Gerring, Staffan Lindberg, et al.) |
| Type≠ | Composite ordinal measure of regime authority characteristics | Multidimensional, expert-coded measurement of democracy |
| Seminal source≠ | Marshall, M. G., & Gurr, T. R. (2020). Polity5: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2018 (Dataset Users' Manual). Vienna, VA: Center for Systemic Peace. link ↗ | Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Altman, D., Bernhard, M., Fish, S., Hicken, A., et al. (2011). Conceptualizing and measuring democracy: A new approach. Perspectives on Politics, 9(2), 247–267. DOI ↗ |
| Aliases | Polity IV Analysis, Polity5 Analysis, Polity2 Score, Polity Index of Democracy and Autocracy | Varieties of Democracy, V-Dem Indices, V-Dem Democracy Indices, Disaggregated Democracy Measurement |
| Related | 3 | 3 |
| Summary≠ | Polity score analysis uses the Polity dataset to measure and compare the regime characteristics of states on a continuum from full autocracy to full democracy. Maintained by the Center for Systemic Peace (Marshall and Gurr), Polity codes institutional features — how chief executives are recruited, the constraints on their authority, and the openness of political competition — into separate democracy and autocracy indices that combine into a single polity score from −10 to +10. It is one of the most widely used measures of regime type in comparative politics and international relations. | Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is a measurement project that captures democracy as a multidimensional concept rather than a single score. Set out by Coppedge, Gerring, and colleagues (2011), V-Dem distinguishes five principles of democracy — electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian — and measures them from hundreds of specific indicators coded by multiple country experts. A statistical measurement model aggregates these expert ratings into disaggregated indicators and high-level indices, each accompanied by estimates of measurement uncertainty, producing one of the most detailed and transparent democracy datasets available. |
| ScholarGateDataset ↗ |
|
|