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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Step 1 includes all those decisions concerning the purpose of the assessment, the context in which it will be conducted, the range of benchmarks and comparators that will be used, the personnel that will carry out the assessment and many other crucial decisions.
Step 2 forms the core of the assessment and takes the largest proportion of the time, since it involves collecting and analysing data in order to provide valid, meaningful and reliable answers to all the search questions (every assessment thus far has provided answers to all the questions). The time it takes to complete an assessment is necessarily a function of the complexity of the context in which it is being carried out, the available capacity and resources, and the initial parameters that have been established in step 1.
Step 3 is a significant launch event that involves all relevant stakeholders, the media, key actors from civil, political and economic society, and in many cases the international community. It is a time to build consensus around the main findings of the report and to reflect on the kinds of reform that can be designed and implemented, as well as the ways in which the entire experience can be evaluated and assessed.
