How can we measure democracy? In the first episode of the Comparative Democracy Takeover our guest host Rikki Dean deals with this question and talks to Carl Knutsen und Brigitte Geißel about the conceptualisation of democracy. If you would like to learn more about the work of Carl Knutsen and Brigitte Geissel, then check out the links to their research below, as well as links to some of the other works referenced in the episode. Carl Knutsen Carl Knutsen’s website: https://chknutsen.com/ The V-DEM project website https://www.v-dem.net/ Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Glynn, A., Knutsen, C. H., Lindberg, S. I., Pemstein, D., Seim, B., Skaaning, S.-E., & Teorell, J. (2020). Varieties of democracy: Measuring two centuries of political change. Cambridge University Press. Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Knutsen, C. H., Krusell, J., Medzihorsky, J., Pernes, J., Skaaning, S.-E., Stepanova, N., Teorell, J., & Tzelgov, E. (2019). The methodology of “varieties of democracy”(V-Dem). Bulletin of Sociological Methodology/Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 143(1), 107–133. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0759106319854989 Knutsen, C. H., Teorell, J., Wig, T., Cornell, A., Gerring, J., Gjerløw, H., Skaaning, S.-E., Ziblatt, D., Marquardt, K. L., & Pemstein, D. (2019). Introducing the Historical Varieties of Democracy dataset: Political institutions in the long 19th century. Journal of Peace Research, 56(3), 440–451. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022343318823866 Brigitte Geissel: Brigitte Geissel’s website: https://www.goethe-university-frankfurt.de/53879167/Prof__Dr__Brigitte_Gei%C3%9Fel Geissel, B. (2022). The Future of Self-Governing, Thriving Democracies: Democratic Innovations By, With and For the People. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003297109 Mayne, Q., & Geissel, B. (2016). Putting the demos back into the concept of democratic quality. International Political Science Review, 37(5), 634–644. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512115616269 Other works referenced in the episode: Warren, M. E. (2017). A Problem-Based Approach to Democratic Theory. American Political Science Review, 111(01), 39–53. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055416000605 Hibbing, J. R., & Theiss-Morse, E. (2002). Stealth Democracy: Americans’ Beliefs About How Government Should Work. Cambridge University Press. Adcock, R., & Collier, D. (2001). Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research. American Political Science Review, 95(3), 529–546. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055401003100