Varieties of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Regional and Global Perspectives - Research workshop

Workshop
Thursday, March 9, 2017

The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset has become an institutional element of political science with its unprecedented coverage of countries, years and variables for the measurement of democracy across time and regions. 

For Central and Eastern Europe, the dataset has opened up new frontiers of research, allowing us to look at long-term country trajectories, country-wise comparisons, cross-regional analyses, diachronic studies of democratic change, and many other topics.

To take stock of these new horizons, the V-Dem Regional Center for Eastern Europe and Russia and the Central European University are co-sponsoring a research workshop on varieties of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.

The purpose of the workshop will be to bring together people who have been part of the process of creating V-Dem along with those who have been working with this data in their academic work. As such, the workshop will provide a unique occasion for expanding and integrating this emerging research community.

The workshop will feature a combination of top international scholars related to the V-Dem project as well as researchers who have been using this data to study democracy. Confirmed speakers include:

• Michael Coppedge, V-Dem Principal Investigator, Professor of Political Science and Faculty Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame
• Svend-Erik Skaaning, V-Dem Principal Investigator, Professor of Political Science Aarhus University
• Kelly McMann, V-Dem Project Manager, Associate Professor of Political Science Case Western Reserve University
• Valeriya Mechkova, Doctoral Research Assistant, V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg

Program
Venue: Monument building, Gellner Room

9:30     Welcoming remarks, Vello Pettai and Zsolt Enyedi

9:45     VARIETIES OF DEMOCRACY CORE RESEARCH  1

• Varieties of Democratic Diffusion: Colonial, Alliance, and Neighbor Networks
  Michael Coppedge (Notre Dame University)
• Democracy and Corruption: A Global Time-Series Analysis with V-Dem Data
  Kelly McMann (Case Western University)

10:30   Discussion

11:30   VARIETIES OF DEMOCRACY CORE RESEARCH  2

• Civil Society, Party Institutionalization, and Democratic Breakdown in the Interwar Period 
  Svend-Erik Skaaning (Aarhus University)        
• Accountability and Development: Introducing New V-Dem Accountability Indices
  Valeriya Mechkova (V-Dem Institute, Gothenburg University)

12:15   Discussion

14:00   COMPARATIVE V-DEM STUDIES (discussant: Federico Vegetti, CEU)

• Recent advances in neural networks to the challenges in political science 
  Lukasz Wordliczek and Igor Podolak (Jagiellonian University)
• The Authoritarian Legacy and Elite Corruption in Young Democracies
  Michelle Smoler (UNC-Chapel Hill)     
• Identity, ethnicity and conflict: Social and political exclusion and civil war onset
  Kyle Marquardt (V-Dem Institute, Gothenburg University)
• How the Characteristics of Antecedent Authoritarian Rule Affects Party System Institutionalisation in New Democracies
  Berker Kavasoglu (Central European University)

16:30   COMPARATIVE V-DEM STUDIES (discussant: András Bozóki, CEU)

• Closed for Good? Party System Institutionalisation and Democracy
  Fernando Casal Bertoa (Nottingham University), Zsolt Enyedi and Martin Mölder (CEU)
• The Role of Corruption in Weakening Liberal Democratic Institutional Order in Europe and Hungary
  András Tóth (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)           
• Quality of Democracy and Quality of Legislation
  Csaba Molnár (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Political Science) and Bálint Kubik (ELTE)

17:45   Concluding remarks, Matthijs Bogaards (CEU)

18:00   Seminar close

If you are interested in participating, please RSVP to: polsci@ceu.edu