Beyond the Index

Description

This repository contains the R project for calculating and analyzing the divergence between V-Dem's polyarchy index and a democracy index based on Afrobarometer survey data. The project examines the gap between measured and perceived democracy levels across African countries.

Project Structure

.
├── src/
│   ├── analysis/        # Divergence calculation and hypothesis testing
│   ├── visualization/   # Creation of plots and tables
│   └── helpers/         # Data preparation and package loading utilities
├── data/
│   ├── source/          # Raw data files
│   └── processed/       # Data generated by the scripts
└── output/              # Results of analysis (data tables and plots)

Usage Instructions

1. Clone this repository
2. Set your working directory to the root folder containing main.R
3. Run the scripts in the order specified in main.R
   • Packages must be loaded before running analysis scripts
4. Results will be available in the output directory

Dependencies

All required R packages are loaded by the helper scripts. See src/helpers/load_packages.R for details.

Citation

If you use this code or methodology in your research, please cite:

Beltermann, Eric (2025). Beyond the Index: The Divergence of Perceived and Measured Democracy and its Predictors.