Practitioner Perspectives: CEPPS Global Democratic Trends Dataset

In 2019, the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) – a trio of nonprofit, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organizations that advance democratic practices and institutions globally – experimented with building a global democratic trends dataset, sourced exclusively by ~150 practitioners working on democratic assistance programs in more than 60 countries. The data collection process was refined in 2022 based on practitioner focus groups and a systematic desk review of democratic trends across academic literature and practitioner reports. While not as comprehensive in its reach or sophisticated in its methodology, the dataset addresses some of the utility limitations of V-Dem and other democracy measures. Specifically, it is collected and analyzed quarterly not annually, includes both quantitative and qualitative in-country observations, and purports to capture mid-level leading indicators of democratic shifts. Analysis of CEPPS' Global Democratic Trends Dataset concurs with the general trend toward democratic backsliding, but the story itself - as told through the practitioner lens - is more nuanced. This presentation will explore the factors contributing to the democratic decline as well as signs of resilience reported by practitioners of democracy assistance. The panelists will also share lessons on designing practitioner-centric data collection and analysis processes, such as how to replicate this approach in other sectors and how practitioner perspectives data can be used alongside other datasets for informing democracy assistance program design, illuminating blind spots for practitioners embedded deeply within a country context, and identifying the sequence of sub-trends that could signal more significant changes on the horizon.