Methodology
Understand our Analytic Framework for Categorizing Democratic Erosion Events
Key to the DEED methodology is deciding how to identify whether an event is related to erosion and then to classify each event into a theoretically meaningful category. DEED classifies events into four types: events that often precede democratic erosion (precursors) from those that constitute erosion itself (symptoms) and those that counteract erosion once it has already begun (resistance), and for autocratic countries, events that undermine the stability of an autocratic regime (destabilizing).
Within these four event types, we also categorize events as relating to vertical accountability, meaning between the government and citizens, or horizontal accountability, meaning between different government agencies and officials.
Precursor
Events that often precede democratic erosion
Threats to Horizontal Accountability
- Delegitimizing or weakening the judiciary
- Delegitimizing or weakening the legislature
- Delegitimizing or weakening subnational units
- Manipulation of civil service
- Coup or regime collapse
- Horizontal corruption
Threats to Vertical Accountability
- Co-optation of the opposition
- Mal-apportionment
- Electoral fraud
- Electoral violence
- Increasing control over civil society
- State-conducted violence or abuse
- Media bias
- Lack of legitimacy
- Polarization
- Extremist/populist parties
- Party weakness
- Vertical corruption
- Increased surveillance
Exogenous Risk Factors
- Non-state violence
- Refugee crisis
- External influence
- Economic shocks and health shocks
- Regional unrest spillover
- Border disputes
- Diaspora
Symptom
Reduction in Horizontal Accountability
- Reduction in judicial independence
- Reduction in legislative oversight
- Weakened civil service or integrity institutions
- Suspension of laws or the constitution
- Relaxation of term limits
- Revision of the constitution
- Reduction autonomy of subnational units
Reduction in Vertical Accountability
- Repression of the opposition
- Systemic reduction in election freedom and fairness
- Curtailed civil liberties
- Media repression
- No-confidence votes or decreased voter turnout
- Foreign military action
- Discrimination against minorities
Resistance
Increase in Horizontal Accountability
- Check on executive by judiciary
- Check on executive by legislature
- Check on central power by subnational units
- Check on central power by civil service
- Post-democratic transition to new constitution
Increase in Vertical Accountability
- Coalitions or elite pacts
- Increase in electoral integrity
- Increase in civic capacity
- Nonviolent protest
- Violent protest
- Increase in media protections/media liberalization
Other
- Pressure from outside actor
- Exit of people or money
- State attempts to prevent backsliding
Destabilizing Events
Domestic Factors
- Elite infighting
- Non-state political violence
- Challenge from extremist/populist factions
- Rejecting election results
- Coup or regime collapse
- Civil war / Revolution
- Economic reforms
Exogenous Factors
- Refugee crisis
- External inluence or invasion
- Economic shocks and health shocks
- Regional unrest spillover
- Disapora
CODEBOOK
DEED Codebook
Download our codebook to access detailed information about how we code events in the dataset and our variables including country, month, year, event type, event category, event description, and source.
Overview to Identifying and Coding DEED Events
First, DEED coders review key sources of qualitative data including student-written case studies following a standardized template produced in the Democratic Erosion university course, and Freedom House annual reports.
Second, coders use the detailed DEED codebook to convert these qualitative narratives into quantitative data, while maintaining rich event descriptions, and corresponding sources for further qualitative information.