Project description
A closer look at democratic decision-making processes
In today’s politically charged climate, the fusion of disparate worldviews into coherent legislation poses an unprecedented challenge for democracies worldwide. Despite the vital role of laws in governing our daily lives, our understanding of how legislation is crafted and sustained remains limited. In this context, the ERC-funded DEMOLAW project will review legislative texts across diverse political systems, including the EU, UK and US. It aims to unravel the complexities of democratic lawmaking. Through cutting-edge computational methods, the project seeks to answer questions such as the underlying design principles of laws and the factors influencing their evolution over time. By providing novel insights into legislative design and dynamics, DEMOLAW will deepen our understanding of democratic decision-making processes.
Objective
Democracies are constantly confronted with the challenging task of merging widely diverging worldviews, interests and values into coherent legislation. Given the increasingly hostile political climate around the world, solving this task has never been more difficult and more important than today. Yet, despite the crucial relevance of laws for our daily lives and the legitimacy and effectiveness of democratic government, our understanding of how the design, creation and long-term survival of legislation are related is still very limited.
The DEMOLAW project analyses legislative texts in three different political systems (US, UK, EU) with cutting-edge computational methods to answer three major research questions: (1) Which conceptual dimensions capture the design of a law and how can we exploit textual properties of law texts to measure these dimensions empirically? (2) Why does the design of democratic legislation vary across laws, policy domains and political systems? (3) How can we explain why some laws are entirely stable over time, while others are constantly adjusted and sometimes transformed fundamentally?
The project makes three major contributions. First, it provides an entirely novel conceptual perspective on the design of democratic laws by focusing on two analytical dimensions that are central to any piece of legislation: versatility and precision. This innovative approach allows us, for the first time, to measure and compare the substance of legislative output across and within policy domains, political systems and over time. Second, the project will develop and test an integrated theoretical framework on both the creation and the survival of democratic legislation and thereby advance the theoretical state-of-the-art in comparative public policy. Finally, the projects ground-breaking methodological approach will pave the way for a computational analysis of legislative content and will thereby push the boundaries of how we study democratic decision-mak
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
88045 Friedrichshafen
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.