Measuring Democratic Backsliding
Andrew T. Little and Anne Meng · 2024 · PS: Political Science & Politics
Original research ↗ (new tab)FRONTIERS / Comparative politics · democracy and measurement
The Democracy Alarm
Bellara's election dashboard and democracy report tell different stories. As an independent analyst, audit the fictional documents before deciding what the public should hear. Read a real scholarly dispute about democratic backsliding, then trace authority, decisions and access through dated records. Build a transparent measurement charter with three indicators and two different rules for combining them. Compare country and population weighting, choose a verification project under a staff-hour limit, and test your rule in an unfamiliar municipal dossier. The challenge is to defend a specific warning with evidence, keep unknowns visible and explain which observation could make you revise it.
Choose For fun / For class inside the activity. The same evidence and political problem remain available; class mode asks for the required responses. Save a local backup and a readable report before submitting through your course system.
Preparation & pacing
Built-in explanations introduce the studies. For a seminar, use the reading companion before discussion. Familiarity with basic concepts helps; the readings make the research question explicit.
Self-contained inquiry for introductory students · No advance reading required · Work in class or across sessions; student completion time has not yet been measured.
What you investigate
- Reconstruct the strongest entrenchment argument and a specific conceptual or empirical response, using actual comparisons, outcomes, periods and boundaries from both articles.
- Build an institutional mechanism with actors, authority, decisions and political opportunities; generate a rival and a discriminating observation without inventing motives or an election result.
- Define a democratic condition, justify three indicators and compare a compensatory rule with a necessary-condition rule on a difficult case.
- Read exact fictional graphs and tables, calculate both means with units, defend the question a summary answers and identify a protection its national average conceals.
- Apply and revise the account in an unfamiliar dossier after committing initial mechanism, rival and prediction notes; distinguish formal legal power from implementation.
The scholarship behind the case
Conceptual and Measurement Issues in Assessing Democratic Backsliding
Carl Henrik Knutsen, Kyle L. Marquardt, Brigitte Seim, Michael Coppedge, Amanda B. Edgell, Juraj Medzihorsky, Daniel Pemstein, Jan Teorell, John Gerring, and Staffan I. Lindberg · 2024 · PS: Political Science & Politics
Original research ↗ (new tab)The reading companion introduces the studies and distinguishes their findings from the fictional case. Original articles retain their own copyright and access conditions. A programmed result is not a measured effect in the world.
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Access & permissions
This Possible States edition runs without student accounts or hosted class submissions. The study, decision, evidence and response tasks are retained. Your work stays on your device; a backup restores progress and a readable report can be submitted separately. Free educational use & licensing information →.
Created by Yoav Duman.