Deliberative component index
By: V-Dem Staff
Jan 21, 2015
According to principles for just deliberation, there should be respectful dialogue at all levels of the policy formation process from preference creation to the final decision-making. To measure these features of a polity, V-Dem offers expert-based assessments of the extent to which political elites give public justifications for their positions on matters of public policy, justify their positions in terms of the public good, acknowledge and respect counter-arguments, and how wide the range of consultation is at elite levels. The graph below shows some similarities in the developments of public deliberation between Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil. All three South American countries show a lot of fluctuation with downward trends after 1960 and steep increases after 1980 followed by a relatively stable period at a rather high level. To find out more about the different principles of democracy constructed by V-Dem, and how they are formed, visit our website and try out the V-Dem online graphing tools.
