The V-Dem Institute (an abbreviation of Varieties of Democracy Institute), founded by Staffan I. Lindberg in 2014, is an independent research institute that serves as the headquarters of the V-Dem Project, a database that seeks to conceptualize and measure democracy. V-Dem defines democracy using seven key principles (electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, egalitarian, majoritarian, and consensual) that emphasize the concept of "rule of the people." As part of its work, it publishes a dataset known as the V-Dem Democracy Indices that is based on its key principles.
The headquarters of the project is based at the department of political science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
