ROME, ITALY – Kelly McMann, Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Studies Program, was among nine researchers involved in the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project gathered in Rome, Italy, from across the Americas and Europe on October 17–19 to present their latest findings at the conference ”What Do We Know About Democratization After 117 Years?” Two other scholars participated electronically.
A key participant in the conference, McMann is the Project Manager of the Subnational Government and of Russia & Central Asia areas for Varieties of Democracy.
Held at the University of Notre Dame’s Rome Global Gateway, the conference gave the democratization researchers the opportunity to discuss the project’s ongoing research agenda and to plan the second volume of a series of books on the V-Dem project.
“It was a rare privilege to be in the company of such brilliant minds, with unbounded time to thoroughly debate how to retest all the major beliefs about democratization,” said Michael Coppedge, one of four V-Dem principal investigators (PIs), who organized the event. “I came away convinced that this book will establish a fundamentally new framework for understanding the centrally important political process of democratization.”
The first book in the V-Dem series, Varieties of Democracy: Measuring a Century of Political Change (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2018) tells the story of how V-Dem’s international collaboration came together and gives an overview of the project’s goals and accomplishments.
The second book will offer a comprehensive explanation of democratization around the world. With its unique approach to the measurement of democracy and unparalleled precision of data, V-Dem can provide insights about the development of key democratic trends as well as address over 60 years of scholarly debates over which factors contribute to, or prevent, democratization.
“V-Dem data makes it possible to conduct groundbreaking new research on topics such as democratization and development that previously was not possible,” said V-Dem PI Staffan I. Lindberg of the University of Gothenburg. “That’s why we decided to write a second V-Dem book.”
McMann was among 11 members of the V-Dem team participating in the conference from 10 American, European, and Latin American universities, which also included:
- David Altman, Project Manager for Direct Democracy and Latin America (Pontificia Catolica de Chile)
- Michael Bernhard, Project Manager for Civil Society; Sovereignty; Central & Eastern Europe (University of Florida)
- Michael Coppedge, V-Dem PI and Faculty Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies (University of Notre Dame)
- John Gerring, V-Dem PI, (University of Texas)
- Allen Hicken, Project Manager for Parties and Party Systems; Asia (University of Michigan)
- Carl-Henrik Knutsen, Project Manager for Historical Data (University of Oslo)
- Staffan I. Lindberg, V-Dem PI and Director, V-Dem Institute (University of Gothenburg)
- Kyle Marquardt, Post-Doc (University of Gothenburg)
- Laura Maxwell, Researcher (University of Gothenburg)
- Svend-Erik Skaaning, V-Dem PI (Aarhus University)
The conference was supported by grants from the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame; University of Gothenburg; Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse; and Stiftelse Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
V-Dem is a collaborative international effort to provide the global community with the world’s most comprehensive, accurate, and detailed democracy ratings. The project has institutional homes at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame, and at the V-Dem Institute in the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.