Conceptual and Measurement Issues in Assessing Democratic Backsliding

Knutsen, Carl Henrik; Marquardt, Kyle L.; Seim, Brigitte; Coppedge, Michael; Edgell, Amanda B.; Medzihorsky, Juraj; Pemstein, Daniel; Teorell, Jan; Gerring, John; Lindberg, Staffan I.

Abstract

During the past decade, analyses drawing on several democracy measures have shown a global trend of democratic retrenchment. While these democracy measures use radically different methodologies, most partially or fully rely on subjective judgments to produce estimates of the level of democracy within states. Such projects continuously grapple with balancing conceptual coverage with the potential for bias (Munck and Verkuilen 2002; Przeworski et al. 2000). Little and Meng (L&M) (2023) reintroduce this debate, arguing that “objective” measures of democracy show little evidence of recent global democratic backsliding.1 By extension, they posit that time-varying expert bias drives the appearance of democratic retrenchment in measures that incorporate expert judgments. In this article, we engage with (1) broader debates on democracy measurement and democratic backsliding, and (2) L&M’s specific data and conclusions.

Citation

Knutsen, C. H., Marquardt, K. L., Seim, B., Coppedge, M., Edgell, A. B., Medzihorsky, J., Pemstein, D., Teorell, J., Gerring, J., & Lindberg, S. I. (2024). Conceptual and Measurement Issues in Assessing Democratic Backsliding. PS: Political Science and Politics, 57(2), 162-177. https://doi.org/10.1017/s104909652300077x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 29, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jan 11, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-04
• Deposit Date: Jan 17, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 22, 2024
• Journal: PS: Political Science & Politics
• Print ISSN: 1049-0965
• Electronic ISSN: 1537-5935
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 57
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 162-177
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s104909652300077x
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2148931