Lars Pelke
Biographic Data
| ID | 4075168 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lars Pelke |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lars |
| FAMILY NAME | Pelke |
| SIGNATURE | PELKE L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9196-8783 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 56 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Quality Assessment of the Academic Freedom Index: Strengths, Weaknesses, and How Best to Use It
This article reviews the data quality of the first systematic global measurement of academic freedom, the Academic Freedom Index (AFI), by using a data quality assessment approach proposed by McMann et al. (2022). By analyzing three distinct components of data quality (content validity, the data generation process, and convergent validity), we examine the specific strengths and potential shortcomings of the AFI. The findings indicate that the AFI…
Democratic Resilience in the Twenty-First Century: Search for an Analytical Framework and Explorative Analysis
Why are some democracies more resilient than others? How can their resilience be improved? Answering these questions requires valid conceptualization and reliable measures of democratic resilience. This study presents a novel conceptualization and measurements of democratic resilience. It differentiates between democratic resilience as regime performance and regime capacity and introduces the Democratic Resilience Capacity Index. The index is the…
Can free academia withstand democratic backsliding? Why some universities wither while others survive
Academic freedom faces threats worldwide, including in some democracies that have traditionally been viewed as bastions of free universities. In the 21st century, academic freedom has declined in 20 (former) democracies, ranging from slow deterioration to abrupt collapse. Previous research shows that attacks on academic freedom are systematically linked to democratic backsliding. However, in some democracies that experience backsliding, academia …
Academic freedom growth and decline episodes
Academic freedom is under threat across the globe and a wave of substantial academic freedom declines affects not only autocracies but also (liberal) democracies. However, although the development of academic freedom has generated scholarly attention, this article presents the first systematic conceptualization and measurement of academic freedom growth and decline episodes. In particular, this article systematically analyzes the development of a…
Democratic Resilience in the Twenty-First Century. Search for an Analytical Framework and Explorative Analysis
Reanalysing the link between democracy and economic development
This article systematically reanalyses the long-run effects of democracy on economic prosperity by using new Varieties of Democracy and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita data for a panel data set between 1789 and 2019. Adopting (a) dynamic panel strategies controlling for country and year-fixed effects and (b) newly introduced matching methods for time-series cross-sectional data, the findings clearly indicate that democracy substantively i…
The Ambivalent Effect of Autocratization on Domestic Terrorism
This study asks if a decline of democratic regime attributes affects the volume of domestic terrorism. We argue that different forms of autocratization may stimulate or suppress terrorist activities. Democratic backsliding may dampen domestic terrorism, while autocratic consolidation may make autocracies more vulnerable to terrorism. This study empirically tests these assumptions on time-series cross-sectional data on domestic terrorism in 182 co…
Academic freedom and the onset of autocratization
Democracy is under threat across the globe and a third wave of autocratization manifests in democratic regression and authoritarian hardening. However, although universities have been important pro-democracy hotbeds, the nexus between academic freedom and autocratization has generated little scholarly attention. This article presents the first systematic investigation of the influence of academic freedom on the onset of autocratization. In partic…
Measuring Policy Performance, Democracy, and Governance Capacities: A conceptual and methodological assessment of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI)
This paper provides a critical assessment of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) and compares it with other prominent indices that address specific components of governance: V‐Dem, WGI, and BTI. We offer a comparative assessment of content validity of these governance measures, their data generation processes, and their convergent validity. We conclude that the SGI’s most important contribution is the conceptualization of policy performan…
Conceptualizing and Measuring Autocratization Episodes
Autocratization affects democracies and autocracies with gradual setbacks in democratic qualities. The current debate on autocratization is lacking a comprehensive and systematic overview of different autocratization concepts and empirical measures. Addressing the gap, this research note identifies and discusses different strategies of operationalizing autocratization periods with continuous democracy data from Freedom House, Polity IV and the Va…
Party institutionalization, authoritarian regime types and women’s political equality
This article examines the association between women’s political inclusion and incumbent party strength in authoritarian regimes. It argues that the degree of party institutionalisation is the main determinant of women’s political inclusion under authoritarian rule. Institutionalised party rule determines the incentive and capacity for authoritarian parties to introduce more gender equal political processes and political outputs. Using different m…
Economic inequality, income, and their effects on electoral and civil society participation in authoritarian regimes
What effect does economic inequality in authoritarian regimes have upon the political participation of its citizens? Do individual income and repression each have a greater effect than economic inequality? Three prominent theories, namely the Conflict, Relative Power, and Resource Theories address the inequality-participation puzzle in the context of democracies. However, theoretical arguments and empirical evidence for non-democratic regimes are…
Inclusionary regimes, party institutionalization and redistribution under authoritarianism
This article examines the variation in income redistribution across autocracies. It argues that the degree of electoral uncertainty affects two mechanisms that shape the redistributive nature of autocratic regimes. The inclusion and exclusion from political power on the grounds of socioeconomic and social attributes, and the institutionalization of political parties determine the incentive and capacity for autocrats to redistribute income and eco…
Democratization Articles Dataset: An Introduction
This research note introduces the new Democratization Articles Dataset, a survey of peer-reviewed articles on democratization published over the past 25 years from five of the leading comparative politics journals. The data highlight significant gender and location authorship imbalances, while also noting a steady increase in the proportion of female authors as well as team collaboration over the past 25 years. Democratization studies also appear…
Autokratische Redistribution – Institutionen, Legitimation und die Umverteilung von Einkommen in Nicht-Demokratien“
Conceptualizing and Measuring Autocratization Episodes
Autocratization affects democracies and autocracies with gradual setbacks in democratic qualities. The current debate on autocratization is lacking a comprehensive and systematic overview of different autocratization concepts and empirical measures. Addressing the gap, this research note identifies and discusses different strategies of operationalizing autocratization periods with continuous democracy data from Freedom House, Polity IV and the Va…
Inclusionary regimes, party institutionalization and redistribution under authoritarianism
This article examines the variation in income redistribution across autocracies. It argues that the degree of electoral uncertainty affects two mechanisms that shape the redistributive nature of autocratic regimes. The inclusion and exclusion from political power on the grounds of socioeconomic and social attributes, and the institutionalization of political parties determine the incentive and capacity for autocrats to redistribute income and eco…
Democratic Resilience in the Twenty-First Century: Search for an Analytical Framework and Explorative Analysis
Why are some democracies more resilient than others? How can their resilience be improved? Answering these questions requires valid conceptualization and reliable measures of democratic resilience. This study presents a novel conceptualization and measurements of democratic resilience. It differentiates between democratic resilience as regime performance and regime capacity and introduces the Democratic Resilience Capacity Index. The index is the…
Academic freedom and the onset of autocratization
Democracy is under threat across the globe and a third wave of autocratization manifests in democratic regression and authoritarian hardening. However, although universities have been important pro-democracy hotbeds, the nexus between academic freedom and autocratization has generated little scholarly attention. This article presents the first systematic investigation of the influence of academic freedom on the onset of autocratization. In partic…
Measuring Policy Performance, Democracy, and Governance Capacities: A conceptual and methodological assessment of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI)
This paper provides a critical assessment of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) and compares it with other prominent indices that address specific components of governance: V‐Dem, WGI, and BTI. We offer a comparative assessment of content validity of these governance measures, their data generation processes, and their convergent validity. We conclude that the SGI’s most important contribution is the conceptualization of policy performan…
Democratization Articles Dataset: An Introduction
This research note introduces the new Democratization Articles Dataset, a survey of peer-reviewed articles on democratization published over the past 25 years from five of the leading comparative politics journals. The data highlight significant gender and location authorship imbalances, while also noting a steady increase in the proportion of female authors as well as team collaboration over the past 25 years. Democratization studies also appear…
Party institutionalization, authoritarian regime types and women’s political equality
This article examines the association between women’s political inclusion and incumbent party strength in authoritarian regimes. It argues that the degree of party institutionalisation is the main determinant of women’s political inclusion under authoritarian rule. Institutionalised party rule determines the incentive and capacity for authoritarian parties to introduce more gender equal political processes and political outputs. Using different m…
Quality Assessment of the Academic Freedom Index: Strengths, Weaknesses, and How Best to Use It
This article reviews the data quality of the first systematic global measurement of academic freedom, the Academic Freedom Index (AFI), by using a data quality assessment approach proposed by McMann et al. (2022). By analyzing three distinct components of data quality (content validity, the data generation process, and convergent validity), we examine the specific strengths and potential shortcomings of the AFI. The findings indicate that the AFI…
Can free academia withstand democratic backsliding? Why some universities wither while others survive
Academic freedom faces threats worldwide, including in some democracies that have traditionally been viewed as bastions of free universities. In the 21st century, academic freedom has declined in 20 (former) democracies, ranging from slow deterioration to abrupt collapse. Previous research shows that attacks on academic freedom are systematically linked to democratic backsliding. However, in some democracies that experience backsliding, academia …
Reanalysing the link between democracy and economic development
This article systematically reanalyses the long-run effects of democracy on economic prosperity by using new Varieties of Democracy and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita data for a panel data set between 1789 and 2019. Adopting (a) dynamic panel strategies controlling for country and year-fixed effects and (b) newly introduced matching methods for time-series cross-sectional data, the findings clearly indicate that democracy substantively i…
The Ambivalent Effect of Autocratization on Domestic Terrorism
This study asks if a decline of democratic regime attributes affects the volume of domestic terrorism. We argue that different forms of autocratization may stimulate or suppress terrorist activities. Democratic backsliding may dampen domestic terrorism, while autocratic consolidation may make autocracies more vulnerable to terrorism. This study empirically tests these assumptions on time-series cross-sectional data on domestic terrorism in 182 co…
Autokratische Redistribution – Institutionen, Legitimation und die Umverteilung von Einkommen in Nicht-Demokratien“
Democratization Articles Dataset: An Introduction
This research note introduces the new Democratization Articles Dataset, a survey of peer-reviewed articles on democratization published over the past 25 years from five of the leading comparative politics journals. The data highlight significant gender and location authorship imbalances, while also noting a steady increase in the proportion of female authors as well as team collaboration over the past 25 years. Democratization studies also appear…
Economic inequality, income, and their effects on electoral and civil society participation in authoritarian regimes
What effect does economic inequality in authoritarian regimes have upon the political participation of its citizens? Do individual income and repression each have a greater effect than economic inequality? Three prominent theories, namely the Conflict, Relative Power, and Resource Theories address the inequality-participation puzzle in the context of democracies. However, theoretical arguments and empirical evidence for non-democratic regimes are…
Inclusionary regimes, party institutionalization and redistribution under authoritarianism
This article examines the variation in income redistribution across autocracies. It argues that the degree of electoral uncertainty affects two mechanisms that shape the redistributive nature of autocratic regimes. The inclusion and exclusion from political power on the grounds of socioeconomic and social attributes, and the institutionalization of political parties determine the incentive and capacity for autocrats to redistribute income and eco…
Conceptualizing and Measuring Autocratization Episodes
Autocratization affects democracies and autocracies with gradual setbacks in democratic qualities. The current debate on autocratization is lacking a comprehensive and systematic overview of different autocratization concepts and empirical measures. Addressing the gap, this research note identifies and discusses different strategies of operationalizing autocratization periods with continuous democracy data from Freedom House, Polity IV and the Va…
Party institutionalization, authoritarian regime types and women’s political equality
This article examines the association between women’s political inclusion and incumbent party strength in authoritarian regimes. It argues that the degree of party institutionalisation is the main determinant of women’s political inclusion under authoritarian rule. Institutionalised party rule determines the incentive and capacity for authoritarian parties to introduce more gender equal political processes and political outputs. Using different m…
Measuring Policy Performance, Democracy, and Governance Capacities: A conceptual and methodological assessment of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI)
This paper provides a critical assessment of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) and compares it with other prominent indices that address specific components of governance: V‐Dem, WGI, and BTI. We offer a comparative assessment of content validity of these governance measures, their data generation processes, and their convergent validity. We conclude that the SGI’s most important contribution is the conceptualization of policy performan…
Reanalysing the link between democracy and economic development
This article systematically reanalyses the long-run effects of democracy on economic prosperity by using new Varieties of Democracy and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita data for a panel data set between 1789 and 2019. Adopting (a) dynamic panel strategies controlling for country and year-fixed effects and (b) newly introduced matching methods for time-series cross-sectional data, the findings clearly indicate that democracy substantively i…
The Ambivalent Effect of Autocratization on Domestic Terrorism
This study asks if a decline of democratic regime attributes affects the volume of domestic terrorism. We argue that different forms of autocratization may stimulate or suppress terrorist activities. Democratic backsliding may dampen domestic terrorism, while autocratic consolidation may make autocracies more vulnerable to terrorism. This study empirically tests these assumptions on time-series cross-sectional data on domestic terrorism in 182 co…
Academic freedom and the onset of autocratization
Democracy is under threat across the globe and a third wave of autocratization manifests in democratic regression and authoritarian hardening. However, although universities have been important pro-democracy hotbeds, the nexus between academic freedom and autocratization has generated little scholarly attention. This article presents the first systematic investigation of the influence of academic freedom on the onset of autocratization. In partic…
Academic freedom growth and decline episodes
Academic freedom is under threat across the globe and a wave of substantial academic freedom declines affects not only autocracies but also (liberal) democracies. However, although the development of academic freedom has generated scholarly attention, this article presents the first systematic conceptualization and measurement of academic freedom growth and decline episodes. In particular, this article systematically analyzes the development of a…
Democratic Resilience in the Twenty-First Century. Search for an Analytical Framework and Explorative Analysis
Quality Assessment of the Academic Freedom Index: Strengths, Weaknesses, and How Best to Use It
This article reviews the data quality of the first systematic global measurement of academic freedom, the Academic Freedom Index (AFI), by using a data quality assessment approach proposed by McMann et al. (2022). By analyzing three distinct components of data quality (content validity, the data generation process, and convergent validity), we examine the specific strengths and potential shortcomings of the AFI. The findings indicate that the AFI…
Democratic Resilience in the Twenty-First Century: Search for an Analytical Framework and Explorative Analysis
Why are some democracies more resilient than others? How can their resilience be improved? Answering these questions requires valid conceptualization and reliable measures of democratic resilience. This study presents a novel conceptualization and measurements of democratic resilience. It differentiates between democratic resilience as regime performance and regime capacity and introduces the Democratic Resilience Capacity Index. The index is the…
Can free academia withstand democratic backsliding? Why some universities wither while others survive
Academic freedom faces threats worldwide, including in some democracies that have traditionally been viewed as bastions of free universities. In the 21st century, academic freedom has declined in 20 (former) democracies, ranging from slow deterioration to abrupt collapse. Previous research shows that attacks on academic freedom are systematically linked to democratic backsliding. However, in some democracies that experience backsliding, academia …
Political science (14 works) · Democracy (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Economics (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Political economy (6 works) · Autocracy (5 works) · Psychology (5 works)