Research

New system for assessing quality of democracy

A new method for assessing the quality of democracy around the world has been developed by the Democratic Audit, a research organisation set up by the University's Human Rights Centre.

The new system can be used to assess the condition of democracy, or the progress of democratisation, in any country.

It has been adopted and developed by International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), the inter-governmental body that promotes democracy.

On 25 March, International IDEA is publishing the International IDEA Handbook on Democracy Assessment to encourage citizens in countries around the world to undertake audits of democracy in their own countries.

The authors of the Handbook are Professor Stuart Weir, of the University's Human Rights Centre, Professor David Beetham, Sarah Bracking and Iain Kearton, of Leeds University.

They have been working with IDEA since 1999 to develop the methodology first created for the Democratic Audits of the UK for more universal use and to oversee the eight pilot studies on which the Handbook draws.

The Handbook incorporates a view of democracy and sets out principles and values for assessing democracy in any one country rather than simply counting off the institutions of democracy in a vacuum.

The authors believe their way of assessing democracy offers a strong and viable alternative to the dominant US models. They say that the more abstract "number-crunching" academic methodologies are of no value to ordinary citizens around the world, nor are the anecdotal models used by organisations like Amnesty International systematic enough to give a full view of any country's democratic arrangements.

The Handbook's methodology has been tested on countries in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.

Thomas Carothers, Vice President for Studies, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: 'With its emphasis on underlying principles and values rather than institutional forms and its roadmap for in-country participation, the Handbook provides important guidance for all persons and organizations interested in the task of assessing democracy worldwide.'

Bookshelf

Foundations of Genetic Programming
Springer
W.B. Langdon and R.Poli

This book, co-authored by Professor Riccardo Poli, of the Department of Computer Science, provides a coherent consolidation of recent work on the theoretical foundations of one of the most advanced forms of evolutionary computation, Genetic Programming (GP).

GP has proved highly successful as a technique for getting computers to automatically solve problems without having to tell them explicitly how. In fact, since its inceptions more than ten years ago, GP has been used to solve practical problems in a variety of application fields and, consequently, interest in how and why GP works has increased.

Professor Poli's book includes a concise introduction to GP, followed by a discussion of fitness landscapes and other theoretical approaches to natural and artificial evolution.

This book is a must-have for researchers and scientists active in GP. It will also appeal to students and ambitioned practitioners interested in a thorough and systematic introduction to the field.

Also in the printed March edition of Wyvern:

• Memory, attention and your mobile
• Voting in the technological age