Causes of Transformation and Democracy Profiles: Empirical Findings of the Democracy Matrix

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The renewal proposal which follows up on the ongoing project "The Democracy Matrix as an alternative to the democracy indices of Freedom House and Polity: Implementation of the Varieties-of-Democracy-Data by using the 15-Field-Matrix of Democracy" has three objectives: Firstly, the conceptual and empirical typification of transformation and democracy profiles. The construction of transformation and democracy profiles is enabled due to sophisticated measurement of the Democracy Matrix, which distinguishes between dimensions and institutions on the one hand and due to the combination of democracy quality- and trade-off-indicators on the other hand. Secondly, the causes of both profiles are to be determined. For this purpose, extensive and differentiated quantitative analyses and complementary qualitative analyses of case studies are conducted. This is the main objective of the proposal. Thirdly, the website from the original project will be expanded and the project will be complemented by an English book publication about the project results and processes. Additionally, the project results will be presented during a conference, where political scientists as well as political practitioners are invited. These measures ensure the scientific use of the project results and increase the practical relevance of the project at the same time. The project works mainly with Varieties of Democracy data which are critically reflected and systematically structured. The twofold typification of democracies – transformation and democracy profiles – is partly linked to existing research and an innovative new approach is developed, as well. Analyzing the causes with a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in a Mixed-Methods framework will close additional research gaps. The transparency of the research process and the results – especially of the data sets – allow a close collaboration with the scientific community.