In the wake of the Cold War, democracy has gained the status of a mantra. Yet there is no consensus about how to conceptualize and measure regimes such that meaningful comparisons can be made through time and across countries. In this prescriptive article, we argue for a new approach to conceptualization and measurement. We first review some of the weaknesses among traditional approaches. We then lay out our approach, which may be characterized ashistorical,multidimensional,disaggregated,andtransparent.We end by reviewing some of the payoffs such an approach might bring to the study of democracy.

Because democracy is central to much comparative and international political research, it is crucial for political scientists to measure it validly. We challenge the common assumption that most existing indicators of democracy measure the same single dimension. We present 11 different streams of evidence to show that about three-quarters of what Polity, Freedom House, and other indicators of democracy have been measuring consists of variation on the two dimensions of democracy that Robert Dahl proposed in Polyarchy-contestation and inclusiveness. These two dimensions were consistently fundamental to the most commonly used indicators of democracy from 1950 to 2000. Our analysis produces new indicators of contestations and inclusiveness for most countries from 1950 to 2000.

This document lists (a) every country in the envisioned V-Dem database, (b) the identities of each polity that comprises a country's history through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (e.g., Russia-USSR); (c) the years for which we have collected data or plan to collect data (in parentheses next to the entry); and (d) the borders of each country (wherever this might be unclear). Many dates are approximate due to the inconclusive nature of a country's history. Note that changes in sovereignty often occur by stages, and marking these stages with specific dates can be challenging. General sources for compiling this document include Wikipedia and Statesman.org. Additional sources, along with notes pertaining to specific countries, empires, and federations are contained in a separate document: "Countries, Empires, Elections (misc notes)" "Country" A V-Dem country is a political unit enjoying at least some degree of functional and/or formal sovereignty. Generally, wherever countries are formally sovereign (in international law) they are treated as countries in V-Dem. However, the recognized sovereignty of a country in international law is sometimes more extensive than the definition of a country in V-Dem. For example, China claims formal sovereignty over Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (at least, according to the PRC), while we regard these entities as separate countries because they enjoy a good deal of autonomy and because their polities work differently than the PRC's.