Lena Herholz is a graduate of the University of Duisburg-Essen and holds a Master of Arts in International Relations and Development Policy, as well as in Theory and Comparative Analysis of Political Systems in Transition. She completed a seven-month internship at the Bertelsmann Foundation, where she contributed to the BTI Transformation Index project as part of the Democracy and Social Cohesion program. During this time, she wrote a blog post in which she reflects on her work and her research interests, which focus on international development and the resilience of democracy and autocracy, with a particular emphasis on ideological factors.