Corporate Governance under Institutional Collapse: Civic Engagement, Ethical Embeddedness, and Reform in Haiti

This study utilizes the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Country-Year Dataset v15 (2025) to analyze cross-national patterns of civic engagement. The V-Dem dataset is one of the most comprehensive expert-coded political science databases available, widely adopted for research on democratic governance and institutional quality. For this analysis, we focus on a targeted sample of low-income fragile states and high-income democracies, using the most recent ten-year period (2015–2024) to capture contemporary governance dynamics. The dataset includes six core indicators that serve as proxies for civic engagement and participatory governance: the Participatory Component Index (v2x_partip), Civil Society Participation Index (v2x_cspart), Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Demonstration (v2cademmob), Freedom of Expression (v2cafres), Anti-System Movements (v2csantimv), and the Direct Popular Vote Index (v2xdd_dd). These variables collectively represent institutionalized opportunities for citizen participation, associational life, expressive freedoms, and mechanisms of direct democracy.

Data processing was conducted in Python via Google Colab to ensure reproducibility, systematic filtering, and efficient management of country-year panel structures. Observations with low coder coverage (fewer than three expert raters per variable-year) were flagged and excluded to mitigate the risk of measurement error and ensure validity. This multidimensional and methodologically rigorous dataset enables granular comparisons across countries and over time. By employing empirically validated indicators, the V-Dem dataset provides a robust analytical foundation for exploring the role of civic engagement in shaping governance outcomes—particularly in fragile states like Haiti, where institutional voids hinder formal governance mechanisms and civic empowerment plays a critical role in reform pathways.

本研究采用民主多样性（Varieties of Democracy, V-Dem）国家-年度数据集v15（2025版），开展公民参与跨国模式的分析。V-Dem数据集是当前最为全面的专家编码政治学数据库之一，被广泛应用于民主治理与制度质量相关研究。本次分析聚焦于低收入脆弱国家与高收入民主国家的针对性样本，选取2015-2024年这一近十年时段，以刻画当前的治理动态。该数据集包含六项核心指标，作为公民参与与参与式治理的代理变量：参与性分项指数（Participatory Component Index, v2x_partip）、公民社会参与指数（Civil Society Participation Index, v2x_cspart）、和平集会与示威自由（Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Demonstration, v2cademmob）、言论自由（Freedom of Expression, v2cafres）、反体制运动（Anti-System Movements, v2csantimv）以及直接民众投票指数（Direct Popular Vote Index, v2xdd_dd）。上述变量共同涵盖了公民参与的制度化机会、结社生活、表达自由与直接民主机制。本研究通过Google Colab平台基于Python开展数据处理，以保障研究可复现性、系统性筛选以及高效管理国家-年度面板数据结构。对于编码覆盖率较低（每个变量-年度单元的专家评分者不足3名）的观测值，我们予以标记并剔除，以降低测量误差风险并确保数据效度。这一多维且方法严谨的数据集支持跨国与跨时间的精细化比较。依托经实证验证的指标体系，V-Dem数据集为探究公民参与在塑造治理结果中的作用提供了坚实的分析基础——尤其在海地这类存在制度真空、正式治理机制受阻，而公民赋权对改革路径至关重要的脆弱国家中，该研究的应用价值更为凸显。