Assessing the quality of democracy is a large and complex task that involves many stakeholders and is affected by a variety of national and context-specific factors, including the size of the country (population and geography), its level of economic development, its type of societal cleavages and level of fragmentation, and its history of democracy and democratic stability, among many others. Despite this complexity and variety,
the history of the democracy assessment framework has shown that it can apply equally across very different countries. The assessments have been carried out in new and old democracies, large and small countries, post-authoritarian and post-conflict countries, and rich and poor countries.
With this universal applicability comes a series of
standard steps that all assessments undergo in order to make the best of the assessment experience.
Step 1 Initial decisions & agenda setting - Purpose
- Content
- Benchmarks & comparators
- Selection of assessors
- Range of sources
- Stakeholder consultation
- Publication & dissemination strategy
- Time frame
- Budget and resource needs
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Step 2 Data collection, analysis and organization - Constructing a bibliography
- Identifying & sorting data
- Arranging & prioritizing items for inclusion
- Confirming answers to search questions
- Writing a draft text
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Step 3 National workshop - Involve all relevant stakeholders
- Plenary sessions & themed workshops
- Resolutions on the way forward
- Linking the findings to a reform agenda
- Evaluation & assessment of the process, outcomes and outputs
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