The art and science of measuring democracy

12/02/24 • 43 min

Is democracy in decline around the world? This is a major question on many of our minds, and luckily for us there are very smart, thoughtful people working on tracking (as well as explaining, understanding, and predicting!) exactly this. We are joined by professor Brigitte Seim, who is a project manager for the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset, which is one of the biggest and most elaborate efforts to track democracy around the world to date. We discuss how to think about turning something as abstract and unwieldy as "democracy" into a number, how to make sense of and learn from those numbers, and about her own research on the growing importance of measuring toxic political speech online to understanding the health of democracy.

This is a great episode for anyone who cares about democracy or regime type broadly, but also for anyone interested in the beautiful art and science of measurement (one of my favorite topics ever!), as well as for anyone interested in learning about a dataset that is a great place to start if you're looking for some data to practice and work with in your own curiosity-based data science journey. Enjoy!

Learn more on Brigitte here and check out her prolific research here. Read about and explore the Varieties of Democracy dataset at v-dem.net.

Learn more about Andrea here and on Instagram at @jonesrooy.

Behind the Data is a podcast that uncovers the hidden stories within the data shaping our world. From political polls to global happiness trackers, we dive into the datasets that influence the decisions we make—while showing you why data isn’t just numbers, but a way to understand the world. Whether you're a data newbie or a seasoned pro, each episode makes complex data approachable, revealing surprising insights and the human side of every dataset. Come for the discoveries, stay for the stories.

We are proud to be part of the Daily Tech News Show network of podcasts.

Subscribe and leave a review!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more on Brigitte here and check out her prolific research here. Read about and explore the Varieties of Democracy dataset at v-dem.net.

Learn more about Andrea here and on Instagram at @jonesrooy.

We are proud to be part of the Daily Tech News Show network of podcasts.

Subscribe and leave a review!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

What can we learn from data about what actually happened in the election?

Approximately ten billion different narratives about what happened in the recent US presidential election have emerged since said election. But how many of these narratives can be substantiated by data? How can we tell?

Political scientist Seth Masket joins us to discuss how to make thoughtful inferences from this data, how and why to be skeptical of evidence-free opinions, and the importance (just like in the last episode!!) of being thoughtful about whether our narratives are based on data or we (or others who are trying to persuade us of something) are simply trying to pick data to support our narrative(s). Stick around until the end to hear how polls did and Seth's thoughts on why everything feels so politically bad these days.

Follow and read more by Seth:

His substack: smotus.substack.com
His podcast: powerflour.substack.com
His personal website: sethmasket.com

Follow Andrea at jonesrooy.com and on Instagram at @jonesrooy.

We are proud to be part of the Daily Tech News Show network of podcasts.

Subscribe and leave a review!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

How to inspect data about your own life to find fulfillment

How do we know what career/path/decision is right for us? How can data science help? In this special season 1 finale, we are joined by Megan Hellerer, career coach to luminaries such as AOC, as well as the author of Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life to discuss why traditional career advice doesn't work, why instead we should treat our daily decisions and behaviors like data to be studied, and how, once we collect that data, to conduct hypothesis tests to find further clues about what a uniquely fulfilling life might look like for each of us.

I've always believed that data is not just some third-party abstract thing, but rather can be very personal and impactful on our own lives, and no one makes this case more strongly -- or more urgently or compellingly -- than Megan. In fact, she reminds us that sometimes the most important data we need is already right under our noses; we just need to know to look for it -- and (the really hard part) be willing to learn from it.

Get your copy of Directional Living here, learn more about Megan here, and follow her on Instagram @meganhellerer!

Find out more about your host here and on Instagram @jonesrooy.

We will return for season 2 in early 2025. In the meantime, if you've enjoyed Behind the Data, please share it with any friends and family you think also might enjoy it! And don't forget to follow the Daily Tech News Show as well.

We are proud to be part of the Daily Tech News Show network of podcasts.

Subscribe and leave a review!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.