Innovative Approaches to Measuring Regime Change
Friday, September 4, 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
2026 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition — Boston, MA | Register here
In-person | Full Paper Panel
Participants:
- (Chair) Julia Leininger, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
- (Discussant) Benjamin Yoel, Michigan State University
Session Description:
How can scholars better measure regime trends? Recent reports of global democratic backsliding have triggered methodological debates about how we capture regime change. While expert-coded or subjective indicators face criticism for temporal bias and lack of reproducibility, objective indicators may miss crucial nuances that require contextual judgment. These debates have exposed the need for new measurement strategies that balance validity, transparency, and replicability. This panel addresses the following key methodological questions: How can emerging data sources and technologies improve our measurement of regime trends? What innovative methods can improve reproducibility while capturing democratic nuance? How should we validate these novel approaches against established measures? The panel brings together papers that offer a fresh take on these debates.
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