At least since Lipset, the notion that democracy thrives (only) in countries where liberal or freedom-oriented values are widespread has been highly popular among political scientists and sociologists. The perhaps most eloquent argument for such a relationship has been proposed by Ronald...

The Historical Varieties of Democracy Dataset (Historical V-Dem) is a new dataset containing about 260 indicators, both factual and evaluative, describing various aspects of political regimes and state institutions. The dataset covers 91 polities globally – including most large, sovereign...

We propose that the extent to which political parties are institutionalized shapes welfare state development. Institutionalized parties allow politicians to overcome coordination problems, avoid capture by special interests, and form stable linkages with broad social groups. These features both...