Now it is official: I am very happy to take over the roll as country coordinator on Luxembourg at the great data collection project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), which aims to provide a new approach to conceptualising and measuring democracy worldwide. It compiles “a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond the simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between seven high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, egalitarian, majoritarian and consensual, and collects data to measure these principles.” (from the website of V-Dem)
Already from September, I have contributed to the huge dataset on democracies all over the world by collecting data on Luxembourg, and by helping V-Dem to get in touch with experts to gather as much feedback as possible about the above-mentioned categories, with an eye on the development of the democratic system in the world’s last Grand-Duchy. I am very glad that I have the opportunity to contribute to such a valuable project.