Varieties of Democracy

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The world's largest collection of information about the state of democracy all over the world resides at the University of Notre Dame. This course is a guided exploration of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) data. It begins with a survey of the varied ways that philosophers and cultures have thought about democracy. It then explains how these traditions were distilled into a lengthy questionnaire answered by more than a thousand country experts all over the world. The course provides you will the methodological tools you need to explore the data in depth to answer questions such as: What does it mean to be "democratic"? Are there different types of democracy in the world? What are the different ways of being undemocratic? Which countries and regions are most and least democratic in each way? What trends can we observe over the past century? Are there sequences of reforms that lead to successful democratization? As the database is still growing, many students will have the opportunity to contribute to the data collection process. You will also supplement the data with independent research to produce a detailed report evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the political regime in one country and placing it in comparative and historical perspective.