{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "compiledAt": "2026-11-05T04:52:56.845Z",
  "publication": "GlobalPulse",
  "responsibleAuthor": "Bono Fei Jin",
  "id": "politics-local-democracy-checks-2026-11-05",
  "desk": "World / Politics",
  "category": "Politics",
  "byline": "Adrian Vale",
  "suggestedTitle": "106 checks for local democracy: what Europe's new dashboard covers",
  "suggestedExcerpt": "We counted the numbered questions in the Council of Europe's new local-democracy framework. Elections and local media account for 42 of 106 checks; the count describes the document's coverage and does not rank countries.",
  "chartKind": "horizontal-bar",
  "chartTitle": "Questions by theme in the local-democracy dashboard",
  "chartSubtitle": "GlobalPulse count of numbered key-indicator questions in CG(2026)51-11, adopted 27 October 2026",
  "unit": "numbered key-indicator questions",
  "xKey": "count",
  "labelKey": "label",
  "rawRows": [
    {
      "order": 1,
      "label": "Local autonomy",
      "count": 9,
      "pdfPagesOneBased": "8–9",
      "sourceId": "coe-dashboard"
    },
    {
      "order": 2,
      "label": "Financial autonomy",
      "count": 9,
      "pdfPagesOneBased": "9–10",
      "sourceId": "coe-dashboard"
    },
    {
      "order": 3,
      "label": "Electoral integrity",
      "count": 25,
      "pdfPagesOneBased": "10–11",
      "sourceId": "coe-dashboard"
    },
    {
      "order": 4,
      "label": "Local mandate and opposition",
      "count": 8,
      "pdfPagesOneBased": "11–12",
      "sourceId": "coe-dashboard"
    },
    {
      "order": 5,
      "label": "Administrative integrity",
      "count": 9,
      "pdfPagesOneBased": "12–13",
      "sourceId": "coe-dashboard"
    },
    {
      "order": 6,
      "label": "Participation and civic space",
      "count": 10,
      "pdfPagesOneBased": "13–14",
      "sourceId": "coe-dashboard"
    },
    {
      "order": 7,
      "label": "Rule of law and remedies",
      "count": 13,
      "pdfPagesOneBased": "14–15",
      "sourceId": "coe-dashboard"
    },
    {
      "order": 8,
      "label": "Violence and intimidation",
      "count": 6,
      "pdfPagesOneBased": "15",
      "sourceId": "coe-dashboard"
    },
    {
      "order": 9,
      "label": "Local media",
      "count": 17,
      "pdfPagesOneBased": "15–16",
      "sourceId": "coe-dashboard"
    }
  ],
  "derivedMetrics": [
    {
      "name": "All numbered key-indicator questions",
      "formula": "9 + 9 + 25 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 13 + 6 + 17",
      "value": 106,
      "unit": "questions"
    },
    {
      "name": "Electoral integrity and local media combined",
      "formula": "25 + 17",
      "value": 42,
      "unit": "questions"
    },
    {
      "name": "Electoral integrity and local media share",
      "formula": "(25 + 17) / 106 * 100",
      "value": 39.62264150943396,
      "displayValue": "39.6%",
      "unit": "percent of counted questions"
    }
  ],
  "methodNotes": [
    "Count each numbered item under Key indicators once. Exclude the nine separate guiding questions, explanatory paragraphs and reference documents. Do not split clauses within a numbered item.",
    "Theme labels in the chart are shortened by GlobalPulse. The source's theme order is retained.",
    "The item count is a reproducible content analysis, not an official statistic published by the Council of Europe.",
    "The source instructs users to assess signals cumulatively and across themes. More questions do not establish greater importance, higher risk or a measured rate of backsliding.",
    "Topics can overlap. The count does not represent 106 independent problems. No country-level data or scores were collected."
  ],
  "editorialAngle": "Turn a broad democracy announcement into a document readers can inspect. Our count identifies where the framework asks the most detailed questions, while making the absence of a country assessment explicit. A later notebook can compare a named monitoring report against these questions, with evidence for each match.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "coe-dashboard",
      "title": "Risk-alert dashboard on local and regional democracy",
      "url": "https://rm.coe.int/09125948802e4591",
      "publisher": "Council of Europe Congress",
      "publishedAt": "2026-10-27",
      "documentCode": "CG(2026)51-11",
      "locator": "PDF pages 8–16 of 22 contain the nine thematic indicator groups; PDF pages 7–8 describe the structure and cumulative interpretation. PDF page 1 confirms date.",
      "verifiedBy": "Primary PDF text; per-theme number sequences checked through their final numbered items."
    },
    {
      "id": "coe-adoption",
      "title": "Congress announcement of early-warning instruments",
      "url": "https://www.coe.int/en/web/congress/-/new-democratic-pact-for-europe-council-of-europe-congress-adopts-early-warning-instruments-against-democratic-backsliding-at-local-and-regional-level",
      "publisher": "Council of Europe Congress",
      "publishedAt": "2026-10-27",
      "locator": "First-day adoption announcement for the 51st session; nine thematic areas; link to CG(2026)51-11."
    },
    {
      "id": "coe-forum",
      "title": "Congress President at the World Forum for Democracy",
      "url": "https://www.coe.int/en/web/congress/-/congress-president-at-the-world-forum-for-democracy-we-must-work-together-for-a-democracy-that-listens-includes-and-delivers",
      "publisher": "Council of Europe Congress",
      "publishedAt": "2026-11-03",
      "locator": "Follow-up address connecting local participation and early-warning work; context only, not indicator-count source."
    }
  ],
  "weeklyFollowUp": "Review one newly published local-democracy monitoring or election-observation report. Map documented findings to the framework with a traceable evidence table; publish no risk score without a defensible scoring method."
}