Call: Country Experts for V-Dem

June 9, 2017

Call: Country Experts for V-Dem

Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is looking for Country Experts to assist with the next update in January 2018, willing to contribute to making the largest dataset on democracy even better in the future. In these times when democracy is at risk in many places, offer a few hours of your time, and contribute to the common good for science and international society!

V-Dem is a global, collaborative research project providing the largest ever database on democracy, headquartered at the V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. V-Dem provides distinct indices of electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian democracy, as well as some 40 indices of specific components of democracy and over 350 detailed indicators, for 177 countries over 117 years. The dataset contains 17 million data points, available for download or for online analysis free of charge on the V-Dem webpage: www.v-dem.net

The Role of a Country Expert

About half of the V-Dem data depends on evaluations by Country Experts - individuals with deep knowledge of a specific thematic area for a particular country, or set of countries.

We conduct annual updates of the V-Dem database. During these updates, most Country Experts work on one country, observed over the past several decades, and on one or two clusters of questions, e.g.: (1) elections and political parties, (2) the executive, the legislature and deliberation, (3) judiciary, civil liberty and sovereignty, and (4) civil society, media freedom and political equality. The coding procedure is entirely web-based. The default language for the online surveys is English but the survey also available in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian.

Be a V-Dem Country Expert!

  • We need your help!
  • Receive a compensation of 25 USD per completed survey (typically, a couple of hours to complete) – or donate it back to future data collection!
  • You must be available to conduct the survey during January 2018.

How to apply to become a Country Expert

  • The selection of Country Experts is based on a number of criteria. Generally, a Country Expert holds a PhD degree, is usually a resident of the country in question and has specialized knowledge in at least one of the sections of the V-Dem survey. For more information about the selection criteria and methods, consult the V-Dem reference materials.
  • Please note that V-Dem applies a rigorous vetting and application process. Also, the need varies by country and specialization, features that we cannot anticipate prior to each year’s selection. (If we do not need someone in your area of specialization this year we might next year; so, it is vital to have your information on file.)
  • We are grateful for your assistance. The V-Dem project depends upon the expertise of those who study the world of democracy. The success of the project, and its continuance, depends upon the contributions we receive from scholars around the world.

To apply to become a Country Expert, please submit your application here.

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