An R package to load, explore and work with the most recent V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) and V-Party datasets.

V-Dem: Global Standards, Local Knowledge

Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is a new approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. We provide a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond the simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between five high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian, and collects data to measure these principles.

We are a team of over 50 social scientists on six continents. We work with more than 3,000 country experts and a truly global International Advisory Board. Read more about the work we do here.

The vdemdata R package

This package contains the most recent V-Dem (Country-Year: V-Dem Full+Others) and V-Party datasets and provides some additional functions.

Basics:

• vdem: Load the V-Dem dataset (for non-R users, please access the V-Dem dataset here)
• vparty: Load the V-Party dataset (for non-R users, please access the V-Party dataset here)
• var_info: Print to the console basic information on a specific variable as given in the codebook of the V-Dem dataset
• find_var: Search variables via keywords in the V-Dem dataset
• fill_vars: Fill election-specific variables in the V-Dem dataset

Graphics:

• plot_indicator: Plot V-Dem indicators for exploratory data analysis.

Installation

# Install the development version of the vdemdata package 
# (the package is an ongoing project, 
# keep checking for updates)

# First, you need to have the devtools package installed
install.packages("devtools")
# now, install the vdemdata package directly from GitHub
devtools::install_github("vdeminstitute/vdemdata")

# NOTE: make sure you have an updated R version and
# - since the package is a development version - 
# an updated version of rlang, xcode (Mac), rtools (Windows), r-base-dev (Linux)
# installed. If you have troubles with the installation 
# write to contact@v-dem.net at the V-Dem Institute.

Suggested Citations

Please remember to cite this package and the underlying datasets when using them for published work.

Package

Maerz, Seraphine F., Amanda B. Edgell, Sebastian Hellemeier, Nina Illchenko, and Linnea Fox. 2024. vdemdata: An R package to load, explore and work with the most recent V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) dataset. https://github.com/vdeminstitute/vdemdata

V-Dem Country-Year+Others Dataset

Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, Cecilia Borella, Agnes Cornell, M. Steven Fish, Linnea Fox, Lisa Gastaldi, Haakon Gjerløw, Adam Glynn, Ana Good God, Sandra Grahn, Allen Hicken, Katrin Kinzelbach, Joshua Krusell, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Natalia Natsika, Anja Neundorf, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Josefine Pernes, Oskar Rydén, Johannes von Römer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Aksel Sundström, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, Steven Wilson and Daniel Ziblatt. 2024. ”V-Dem [Country-Year/Country-Date] Dataset v14” Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemds24.

V-Party Dataset

Lindberg, Staffan I., Nils Düpont, Masaaki Higashijima, Yaman Berker Kavasoglu, Kyle L. Marquardt, Michael Bernhard, Holger Döring, Allen Hicken, Melis Laebens, Juraj Medzihorsky, Anja Neundorf, Ora John Reuter, Saskia Ruth–Lovell, Keith R. Weghorst, Nina Wiesehomeier, Joseph Wright, Nazifa Alizada, Paul Bederke, Lisa Gastaldi, Sandra Grahn, Garry Hindle, Nina Ilchenko, Johannes von Römer, Steven Wilson, Daniel Pemstein, Brigitte Seim. 2022. Varieties of Party Identity and Organization (V–Party) Dataset V2. Varieties of Democracy (V–Dem) Project. https://www.v-dem.net/data/v-party-dataset/