Patterns in Democracy-Promoting INGO Networks, 1981-2015

Despite the long-recognized role of international organizational networks in spreading global norms, including democracy, democracy-promoting international non-governmental organizations (DINGOs) remain understudied. This visualization addresses this gap by plotting nations’ degree centrality within various DINGO networks over time from 1981 to 2015, thereby quantifying, for the first time, the configuration of nonstate democracy promotion networks. Results indicate that all networks are extremely dense, and nations’ mean centrality increases over time. Although dispersion tends to decrease over time—particularly after 2000, relatively high dispersion persists for one network: civil liberties. Thus, although more nations are increasingly integrated within DINGO networks overall, this trend is not uniform. We suspect this difference reflects nations’ growing disillusionment with an enterprise that only condemns civil liberties when geopolitics allows and the subsequently declining traction of civil liberties norms. Results suggest a pivotal yet potentially controversial role of DINGO networks and motivate further research exploring their effects.

尽管国际组织网络在传播全球规范，包括民主等价值观念方面长期被认可的作用，但促进民主的国际非政府组织（DINGOs）仍处于研究不足的状态。本可视化研究旨在填补这一空白，通过展示自1981年至2015年间各国在DINGO网络中的度中心性，从而首次量化非国家行为体在民主推广网络中的结构配置。研究发现，所有网络均极为稠密，且随着时间的推移，国家的平均中心性呈现上升趋势。尽管分散性倾向于随时间降低——特别是在2000年之后，但其中一个网络——公民自由网络——却持续保持相对较高的分散性。尽管从整体来看，越来越多的国家被逐渐纳入DINGO网络之中，但这种趋势并不一致。我们推测，这种差异反映了各国对仅在地理政治环境允许时谴责公民自由的这一事业日益增长的失望，以及随后公民自由规范影响力的下降。研究结果暗示了DINGO网络的关键作用，尽管可能存在争议，并促使进一步研究探索其影响。