Makarychev appointed V-Dem country coordinator

Press release — 13 November 2013

New research project to boost research cluster on Governance & Democracy

Andrey Makarychev, Guest Professor at the Institute of Government & Politics and associated CEURUS scholar, was recently appointed Russia country coordinator for the international “Varieties of Democracy” project. V-Dem is a global expert survey comparing nearly 200 nations or territories on over 350 variables of democratic development. The framework involves 12 different dimensions of democracy including gender participation, the structure of party politics, the state of minority rights, legal provisions for direct democracy (such as referenda), distribution of competences within the executive, mechanisms of checks-and-balances, and the media. The time frame of the survey will span from 1900 to the present.

“This project is not only one of the largest in scope, but also one of the most nuanced in terms of how we conceptualize and measure democracy”, Andrey Makarychev says. “It purports to find a balance between political and social dimensions of democratic procedures, and compare countries with each other along these lines. Democracy is conceived not as an ideological concept but rather as a dynamic object for research.”

Prof. Makarychev joins a second IGP faculty member, Comparative Politics Professor Vello Pettai, working on the V-Dem project. Prof. Pettai is Regional Manager for the Baltic states and has coordinated the data gathering for these countries since January 2013.

For more information about the project see the V-Dem website.

For other projects within the ‘Governance & Democracy’ research cluster see here