Our curated library is packed full of knowledge, know-how and best practices in the fields of democracy and culture.
Read the latest on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other critical world events in our library of democratic content. Gathered from trusted international sources, the curated library brings you a rich resource of articles, opinion pieces and more on democracy and culture to keep you updated.
Take a look at curated library below and search by keyword (i.e. Ukraine or authoritarianism) or format (i.e. article or report) and find a tailored list of resources on the topics you're most interested in.
Electoral Choice in Multidimensional Party Systems
The authors find that “by factoring in the measurement of issue dimensions, economic issues have a stronger impact than recognized using previous methodologies, with more modest cultural influences on voting. Moreover, there are significant cross-over effects of the two cleavages in voters’ choices” (Berning and Dalton, 2021).
Democracy Doesn’t Always Happen Over Night: Regime Change in Stages and Economic Growth
This paper analyses “the idea that democratic regime change is not a discrete event but a two-stage process: (1), autocracies enter into an ‘episode’ of political liberalization which can last for years or even decades; (2), the ultimate outcome of the episode manifests itself and a nation undergoes regime change or not" (Henrik Knutsen, 2021).
Where the rubber meets the road. Survey on CSOs perceptions about UN reform is being launched today
This survey and report details what UNDS reform is, how inclusive it is, and perceptions of the UN system.
The essence of democratic backsliding in the European Union: deliberation and rule of law
"This paper analyzes recent trends of democratic backsliding within the European Union (EU)" and provides "a comprehensive analysis of the essence of democratic backsliding by analyzing changes between 1990 and 2019 on key indicators of democracy – polyarchy, liberalism, participation, deliberation and egalitarianism – documented in the V-Dem dataset, within the European Union. We find that democratic backsliding at its core is structured by a deterioration of the quality of deliberation" (Gora and de Wilde, 2020).
Financing Sustainable Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond - An analysis and assessment of innovative policy options
The “paper picks some of the most promising and most innovative proposals” from the May 2020 UN policy dialogue entitled “Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” and examines the “political feasibility of each of the proposals” and their potential (Ellmers 2020).
The Business Case for Democracy
This paper “presents a business case for democracy, focusing on the impact of democracy on economic growth... It discusses four factors pertaining to data quality and modelling choices, suggesting that several previous studies have underestimated the growth-benefits of democracy… and the relationship between democracy and economic crises and variation in economic performance" (Henrik Knutsen, 2020).
Policy Recommendations: Strengthening Democracy
“A growing disregard for the conditions that form the foundations of democracy...threatens to destabilize the democratic order” and “prioritizing a narrow support base at the expense of ensuring fundamental freedoms for all, and neglecting to tie democratic principles to foreign policy, leaves democracies vulnerable” to authoritarianism (Freedom House, 2020).
Democracy Erodes from the Top: Public Opinion and the Crisis of Democracy in Europe
Larry M. Bartels argues that “culpability for Europe’s current crisis of democracy...lies overwhelmingly with political elites”, using analysis that summarizes “broad trends in European public opinion” and examining “the two most prominent examples of democratic “backsliding” in contemporary Europe” in Hungary and Poland (Larry M. Bartels, September 2020).
Voting Rights of Denizens and Expats: Adjusting Democracy Indices to the Age of Mass Migration
"This measure assesses how large the overlap between those who make the law and those who are subject to it is. It is shown how some regimes—including some that have been considered strong democracies—exhibit a considerable gap between these two groups that their democratic credentials should be questioned" (Altman, 2020).
Worth the Sacrifice? Illiberal and Authoritarian Practices during Covid-19
"Excessive use of emergency powers and limitations of media freedoms have raised concerns that Covid-19 is infecting democracy itself. This paper proposes a novel conceptualization of which government responses to Covid-19 qualify as a violation of democratic standards and measure such violations" (Maerz et al., 2020).
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