Seraphine F Maerz
Biographic Data
| ID | 1417316 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Seraphine F Maerz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Seraphine F |
| FAMILY NAME | Maerz |
| SIGNATURE | MAERZ S F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Gothenburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7173-9617 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 338 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Listening to Leaders
Political leaders signal their commitment to democratic or authoritarian values through public speeches. Such signals can constitute a breach of democratic norms and indicate intent to undermine democratic institutions. By listening to what leaders say, we are able to capture a hitherto overlooked sign of a crisis of democracy. We develop indicators for illiberal speech that capture the language by leading representatives of political regimes acr…
The rise of authoritarian informationalism
The past decade has witnessed a transformation in the study of authoritarian governance, with increasing attention paid to how digital technologies reshape strategies of regime survival. While initial research focused on individual digital strategies like censorship, internet shutdowns, or online propaganda, emerging scholarship conceptualizes the broader, meta-level effects of digitalization on authoritarian tactics. Building on these advancemen…
Strongmen” Don't Redistribute
Illiberal leaders—sometimes called strongmen—often campaign on being more effective. The tradeoff presented to citizens is straightforward: they promise to cut through the indecisiveness and gridlock of democratic debate and give people what they want. Such leaders often use the rhetoric of economic grievances, corruption, and redistribution, but do they follow through on those promises? We answer this question using data from 38,557 speeches by …
How practices of digital authoritarianism harm democracy
Authoritarian collaboration and repression in the digital age
Controlling the digital public sphere has become an important factor of authoritarianism in the twenty-first century. Authoritarian states are reluctant to accept foreign direct investment (FDI) in their internet infrastructure. However, expanding internet infrastructure is expensive, often necessitating FDI. We argue that investment from other autocracies allows incumbent dictators to provide internet access and use it for repressive purposes. S…
Achieving Transparency, Traceability, and Readability with Human-Coded Data
Many important questions in political science require the use of human-coded data or information that has been systematically ordered and quantified by a human being from qualitative sources. This article discusses challenges and recent innovations in collecting and documenting human-coded data. We review five datasets produced within the past 10 years and also reflect on our experiences in collecting a quarterly dataset that tracked state respon…
Episodes of regime transformation
This article provides a new conceptualization of regime transformation that allows scholars to address democratization and autocratization as related but obverse processes. We introduce a dataset that captures 680 episodes of regime transformation (ERT) from 1900 to 2019 and offers novel insights into regime change over the past 120 years. The ERT has three main advantages over other approaches. First, it avoids problematic assumptions of unit ho…
Episodes of liberalization in autocracies
This paper introduces a new approach to the quantitative study of democratization. Building on the comparative case-study and large-N literature, it outlines an episode approach that identifies the discrete beginning of a period of political liberalization, traces its progression, and classifies episodes as successful versus different types of failing outcomes, thus avoiding potentially fallacious assumptions of unit homogeneity. We provide a des…
The Institutional Order of Liberalization
When authoritarian regimes liberalize, are there observable patterns in the ordering of reforms, and are these patterns distinct for cases that transition to democracy? While the prevailing literature tends to focus on exogenous ‘determinants’ of democracy, this letter describes the endogenous dynamics of liberalization itself. Using pairwise domination analysis, it assesses the institutional order of reforms during 371 episodes of liberalization…
V-Dem Codebook v11
V-Dem Dataset v11.1
How democracies prevail
This article introduces a novel conceptualization of democratic resilience - a two-stage process where democracies avoid democratic declines altogether or avert democratic breakdown given that such autocratization is ongoing. Drawing on the Episodes of Regime Transformation (ERT) dataset, we find that democracies have had a high level of resilience to onset of autocratization since 1900. Nevertheless, democratic resilience has become substantiall…
State of the world 2020
This article analyses the state of democracy in 2020. The world is still more democratic than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, but a trend of autocratization is ongoing and affecting 25 countries in 2020, home to 34% of the world’s population. At the same time, the number of democratizing countries has dwindled by nearly half, reducing to 16 countries, home to a mere 4% of the global population. Freedom of expression, deliberation, rule of law and …
Pandemic backsliding
Text as Data for Conflict Research
Computer-aided text analysis (CATA) offers exciting new possibilities for conflict research that this contribution describes using a range of exemplary studies from a variety of disciplines including sociology, political science, communication studies, and computer science. The chapter synthesizes empirical research that investigates conflict in relation to text across different formats and genres. This includes both conflict as it is verbalized …
The Many Faces of Authoritarian Persistence
This article examines how authoritarian regimes combine various strategies of repression, co-optation and legitimation to remain in power. The contribution of the article is two-fold. First, I conceptualize the hexagon of authoritarian persistence as a framework to explain how authoritarian regimes manage to survive. The hexagon is based on Gerschewski’s (2013) three pillars of stability but proposes some crucial modifications. In contrast to the…
State of the world 2019
This article analyses the state of democracy in the world in 2019. We demonstrate that the "third wave of autocratization" is accelerating and deepening. The dramatic loss of eight democracies in the last year sets a new record in the rate of breakdowns. Exemplifying this crisis is Hungary, now the EU's first ever authoritarian member state. Governmental assaults on civil society, freedom of expression, and the media are proliferating and becomin…
Simulating pluralism
This article analyses the language authoritarian leaders use to legitimate their rule. It examines the official speeches of autocrats in hegemonic regimes and compares them to the rhetorical styles of leaders in closed or competitive regimes and democracies. While recent autocracy research has drawn most attention to the phenomenon of competitive authoritarianism, the survival strategies of hegemonic regimes are less explored. Thus, the study foc…
Ma’naviyat in Uzbekistan
The intensively propagated moral construct of ma’naviyat penetrates all fields of public life in present-day Uzbekistan. The originally religious term is used as the moral foundation of the state’s official ‘ideology of national independence’. Portrayed as a return of the Uzbek people to their pre-Soviet past and their innate values and traditions, the ideological concept is preached as the only effective remedy for overcoming the negative Soviet…
Legitimation, cooptation, and repression and the survival of electoral autocracies
The electronic face of authoritarianism
State of the world 2019
This article analyses the state of democracy in the world in 2019. We demonstrate that the "third wave of autocratization" is accelerating and deepening. The dramatic loss of eight democracies in the last year sets a new record in the rate of breakdowns. Exemplifying this crisis is Hungary, now the EU's first ever authoritarian member state. Governmental assaults on civil society, freedom of expression, and the media are proliferating and becomin…
State of the world 2020
This article analyses the state of democracy in 2020. The world is still more democratic than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, but a trend of autocratization is ongoing and affecting 25 countries in 2020, home to 34% of the world’s population. At the same time, the number of democratizing countries has dwindled by nearly half, reducing to 16 countries, home to a mere 4% of the global population. Freedom of expression, deliberation, rule of law and …
How democracies prevail
This article introduces a novel conceptualization of democratic resilience - a two-stage process where democracies avoid democratic declines altogether or avert democratic breakdown given that such autocratization is ongoing. Drawing on the Episodes of Regime Transformation (ERT) dataset, we find that democracies have had a high level of resilience to onset of autocratization since 1900. Nevertheless, democratic resilience has become substantiall…
Pandemic backsliding
The Many Faces of Authoritarian Persistence
This article examines how authoritarian regimes combine various strategies of repression, co-optation and legitimation to remain in power. The contribution of the article is two-fold. First, I conceptualize the hexagon of authoritarian persistence as a framework to explain how authoritarian regimes manage to survive. The hexagon is based on Gerschewski’s (2013) three pillars of stability but proposes some crucial modifications. In contrast to the…
The electronic face of authoritarianism
Episodes of regime transformation
This article provides a new conceptualization of regime transformation that allows scholars to address democratization and autocratization as related but obverse processes. We introduce a dataset that captures 680 episodes of regime transformation (ERT) from 1900 to 2019 and offers novel insights into regime change over the past 120 years. The ERT has three main advantages over other approaches. First, it avoids problematic assumptions of unit ho…
Simulating pluralism
This article analyses the language authoritarian leaders use to legitimate their rule. It examines the official speeches of autocrats in hegemonic regimes and compares them to the rhetorical styles of leaders in closed or competitive regimes and democracies. While recent autocracy research has drawn most attention to the phenomenon of competitive authoritarianism, the survival strategies of hegemonic regimes are less explored. Thus, the study foc…
Ma’naviyat in Uzbekistan
The intensively propagated moral construct of ma’naviyat penetrates all fields of public life in present-day Uzbekistan. The originally religious term is used as the moral foundation of the state’s official ‘ideology of national independence’. Portrayed as a return of the Uzbek people to their pre-Soviet past and their innate values and traditions, the ideological concept is preached as the only effective remedy for overcoming the negative Soviet…
Episodes of liberalization in autocracies
This paper introduces a new approach to the quantitative study of democratization. Building on the comparative case-study and large-N literature, it outlines an episode approach that identifies the discrete beginning of a period of political liberalization, traces its progression, and classifies episodes as successful versus different types of failing outcomes, thus avoiding potentially fallacious assumptions of unit homogeneity. We provide a des…
The Institutional Order of Liberalization
When authoritarian regimes liberalize, are there observable patterns in the ordering of reforms, and are these patterns distinct for cases that transition to democracy? While the prevailing literature tends to focus on exogenous ‘determinants’ of democracy, this letter describes the endogenous dynamics of liberalization itself. Using pairwise domination analysis, it assesses the institutional order of reforms during 371 episodes of liberalization…
Authoritarian collaboration and repression in the digital age
Controlling the digital public sphere has become an important factor of authoritarianism in the twenty-first century. Authoritarian states are reluctant to accept foreign direct investment (FDI) in their internet infrastructure. However, expanding internet infrastructure is expensive, often necessitating FDI. We argue that investment from other autocracies allows incumbent dictators to provide internet access and use it for repressive purposes. S…
Achieving Transparency, Traceability, and Readability with Human-Coded Data
Many important questions in political science require the use of human-coded data or information that has been systematically ordered and quantified by a human being from qualitative sources. This article discusses challenges and recent innovations in collecting and documenting human-coded data. We review five datasets produced within the past 10 years and also reflect on our experiences in collecting a quarterly dataset that tracked state respon…
How practices of digital authoritarianism harm democracy
The electronic face of authoritarianism
Legitimation, cooptation, and repression and the survival of electoral autocracies
Ma’naviyat in Uzbekistan
The intensively propagated moral construct of ma’naviyat penetrates all fields of public life in present-day Uzbekistan. The originally religious term is used as the moral foundation of the state’s official ‘ideology of national independence’. Portrayed as a return of the Uzbek people to their pre-Soviet past and their innate values and traditions, the ideological concept is preached as the only effective remedy for overcoming the negative Soviet…
Simulating pluralism
This article analyses the language authoritarian leaders use to legitimate their rule. It examines the official speeches of autocrats in hegemonic regimes and compares them to the rhetorical styles of leaders in closed or competitive regimes and democracies. While recent autocracy research has drawn most attention to the phenomenon of competitive authoritarianism, the survival strategies of hegemonic regimes are less explored. Thus, the study foc…
Text as Data for Conflict Research
Computer-aided text analysis (CATA) offers exciting new possibilities for conflict research that this contribution describes using a range of exemplary studies from a variety of disciplines including sociology, political science, communication studies, and computer science. The chapter synthesizes empirical research that investigates conflict in relation to text across different formats and genres. This includes both conflict as it is verbalized …
The Many Faces of Authoritarian Persistence
This article examines how authoritarian regimes combine various strategies of repression, co-optation and legitimation to remain in power. The contribution of the article is two-fold. First, I conceptualize the hexagon of authoritarian persistence as a framework to explain how authoritarian regimes manage to survive. The hexagon is based on Gerschewski’s (2013) three pillars of stability but proposes some crucial modifications. In contrast to the…
State of the world 2019
This article analyses the state of democracy in the world in 2019. We demonstrate that the "third wave of autocratization" is accelerating and deepening. The dramatic loss of eight democracies in the last year sets a new record in the rate of breakdowns. Exemplifying this crisis is Hungary, now the EU's first ever authoritarian member state. Governmental assaults on civil society, freedom of expression, and the media are proliferating and becomin…
V-Dem Codebook v11
V-Dem Dataset v11.1
How democracies prevail
This article introduces a novel conceptualization of democratic resilience - a two-stage process where democracies avoid democratic declines altogether or avert democratic breakdown given that such autocratization is ongoing. Drawing on the Episodes of Regime Transformation (ERT) dataset, we find that democracies have had a high level of resilience to onset of autocratization since 1900. Nevertheless, democratic resilience has become substantiall…
State of the world 2020
This article analyses the state of democracy in 2020. The world is still more democratic than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, but a trend of autocratization is ongoing and affecting 25 countries in 2020, home to 34% of the world’s population. At the same time, the number of democratizing countries has dwindled by nearly half, reducing to 16 countries, home to a mere 4% of the global population. Freedom of expression, deliberation, rule of law and …
Pandemic backsliding
The Institutional Order of Liberalization
When authoritarian regimes liberalize, are there observable patterns in the ordering of reforms, and are these patterns distinct for cases that transition to democracy? While the prevailing literature tends to focus on exogenous ‘determinants’ of democracy, this letter describes the endogenous dynamics of liberalization itself. Using pairwise domination analysis, it assesses the institutional order of reforms during 371 episodes of liberalization…
Episodes of liberalization in autocracies
This paper introduces a new approach to the quantitative study of democratization. Building on the comparative case-study and large-N literature, it outlines an episode approach that identifies the discrete beginning of a period of political liberalization, traces its progression, and classifies episodes as successful versus different types of failing outcomes, thus avoiding potentially fallacious assumptions of unit homogeneity. We provide a des…
Achieving Transparency, Traceability, and Readability with Human-Coded Data
Many important questions in political science require the use of human-coded data or information that has been systematically ordered and quantified by a human being from qualitative sources. This article discusses challenges and recent innovations in collecting and documenting human-coded data. We review five datasets produced within the past 10 years and also reflect on our experiences in collecting a quarterly dataset that tracked state respon…
Episodes of regime transformation
This article provides a new conceptualization of regime transformation that allows scholars to address democratization and autocratization as related but obverse processes. We introduce a dataset that captures 680 episodes of regime transformation (ERT) from 1900 to 2019 and offers novel insights into regime change over the past 120 years. The ERT has three main advantages over other approaches. First, it avoids problematic assumptions of unit ho…
Strongmen” Don't Redistribute
Illiberal leaders—sometimes called strongmen—often campaign on being more effective. The tradeoff presented to citizens is straightforward: they promise to cut through the indecisiveness and gridlock of democratic debate and give people what they want. Such leaders often use the rhetoric of economic grievances, corruption, and redistribution, but do they follow through on those promises? We answer this question using data from 38,557 speeches by …
How practices of digital authoritarianism harm democracy
Authoritarian collaboration and repression in the digital age
Controlling the digital public sphere has become an important factor of authoritarianism in the twenty-first century. Authoritarian states are reluctant to accept foreign direct investment (FDI) in their internet infrastructure. However, expanding internet infrastructure is expensive, often necessitating FDI. We argue that investment from other autocracies allows incumbent dictators to provide internet access and use it for repressive purposes. S…
Listening to Leaders
Political leaders signal their commitment to democratic or authoritarian values through public speeches. Such signals can constitute a breach of democratic norms and indicate intent to undermine democratic institutions. By listening to what leaders say, we are able to capture a hitherto overlooked sign of a crisis of democracy. We develop indicators for illiberal speech that capture the language by leading representatives of political regimes acr…
The rise of authoritarian informationalism
The past decade has witnessed a transformation in the study of authoritarian governance, with increasing attention paid to how digital technologies reshape strategies of regime survival. While initial research focused on individual digital strategies like censorship, internet shutdowns, or online propaganda, emerging scholarship conceptualizes the broader, meta-level effects of digitalization on authoritarian tactics. Building on these advancemen…
Political science (16 works) · Political economy (13 works) · Politics (13 works) · Democracy (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (11 works) · Authoritarianism (10 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Economics (10 works) · Law (9 works)