scispace - formally typeset
Journal ArticleDOI

Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy Evaluating Alternative Indices

Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this article, a comprehensive and integrated framework for the analysis of data is offered and used to assess data sets on democracy, and the authors conclude that constructors of democracy indices tend to be quite self-conscious about methodological issues but even the best indices suffer from important weaknesses.
Abstract
A comprehensive and integrated framework for the analysis of data is offered and used to assess data sets on democracy. The framework first distinguishes among three challenges that are sequentially addressed: conceptualization, measurement, and aggregation. In turn, it specifies distinct tasks associated with these challenges and the standards of assessment that pertain to each task. This framework is applied to the data sets on democracy most frequently used in current statistical research, generating a systematic evaluation of these data sets. The authors’ conclusion is that constructors of democracy indices tend to be quite self-conscious about methodological issues but that even the best indices suffer from important weaknesses. More constructively, the article’s assessment of existing data sets on democracy identifies distinct areas in which attempts to improve the quality of data on democracy might fruitfully be focused.

read more

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Democracy and dictatorship revisited

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the strengths and weaknesses of the main available measures of political regime and extend the dichotomous regime classification first introduced in Alvarez et al. (Stud. Comp. Int. Dev. 31(2):3-36, 1996).
Book

Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis

TL;DR: The publication is an adaptation and translation of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and fuzzy sets: ein Lehrbuch fur Anwender and jene, die es werden wollen, Leverkusen/Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2007.
Book

Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior

TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of electoral engineering on voting behavior is discussed. But the authors focus on the role of electoral rules and do not consider the effect of the rules on the behavior of voters.
Book

Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization

TL;DR: Brownlee et al. as mentioned in this paper show that the mixed record of recent democratization is best deciphered through a historical and institutional approach to authoritarian rule, exposing the internal organizations that structure elite conflict and why the critical soft-liners needed for democratic transitions have been dormant in Egypt and Malaysia but outspoken in Iran and the Philippines.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Politics of Foreign Direct Investment into Developing Countries: Increasing FDI through International Trade Agreements?

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that international trade agreements (GATT/WTO and preferential trade agreements) provide mechanisms for making commitments to foreign investors about the treatment of their assets, thus reassuring investors and increasing investment.
References
More filters
Book

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a history of the first half of the 20th century, from 1875 to 1914, of the First World War and the Second World War.
Book

The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century

TL;DR: The third wave of democratization in the late 1970s and early 1990s as mentioned in this paper is the most important political trend in the last half of the 20th century, according to the authors.
Book ChapterDOI

Historical institutionalism in comparative politics

TL;DR: The authors provides an overview of recent developments in historical institutionalism and assesses the progress in understanding institutional formation and change, drawing on insights from recent historical institutional work on icritical juncturesi and on ipolicy feedbacks.
Book

Between Facts and Norms

TL;DR: In Between Facts and Norms as discussed by the authors, Jurgen Habermas works out the legal and political implications of his Theory of Communicative Action (1981), bringing to fruition the project announced with his publication of The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in 1962.
Book

The concept of representation

TL;DR: The authors The Problem of Thomas Hobbes Formalistic views of Representation "Standing For": Descriptive Representation" standing for": Symbolic Representation Representing as "Acting For": The Analogies The Mandate-Independence Controversy Representing Unattached Interests: Burke Representing People Who Have Interests.