1 / 12

NUMBERS IN ACTION: CYCLES OF DEMOCRACY

NUMBERS IN ACTION: CYCLES OF DEMOCRACY. OUTLINE. Purpose: Discussion of Practical Applications Democratization in Latin America Legacies of Independence Cycles and Trends Global and Comparative Perspectives Democratic Dominoes? Subregional Variations and the Colossus of the North

cargile
Download Presentation

NUMBERS IN ACTION: CYCLES OF DEMOCRACY

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. NUMBERS IN ACTION:CYCLES OF DEMOCRACY

  2. OUTLINE • Purpose: Discussion of Practical Applications • Democratization in Latin America • Legacies of Independence • Cycles and Trends • Global and Comparative Perspectives • Democratic Dominoes? • Subregional Variations and the Colossus of the North • Lessons over Time: Earlier Experience • Democracy and Instability

  3. Key Question: What’s new about the current wave of democracy? N countries = 19 N years = 101 N country-years = 1,919 Key Concept: Distinction between (a) quality of elections, and (b) protection of civil liberties—i.e., between “procedural” and “substantive” components of democracy.

  4. CATEGORIES OF ELECTORAL REGIMES Electoral democracy = free and fair elections Semidemocracy = elections free but not fair; or, effective power not vested in winner of elections Competitive oligarchy = elections fair but not free; candidates restricted to socio-economic elite and suffrage restricted to minority of population Autocracy/authoritarianism = no elections, or elections neither free nor fair.

  5. MODES OF AGGREGATION: • By year • By country • Or, in other types of research project, by such characteristics as (a) age, (b) academic class, (c) region, (d) parents’ occupation, etc.

  6. ON LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT • Nominal variable (for each country-year) • Interval-scale variable (N or % countries—or % people-- within each category for each year) • Note: Quality of electoral system not here considered as “ordered nominal” variable—but could it be?

  7. Figure 3. The Path of Democratic Change, 1900-2000

  8. KEY ISSUES FOR STUDY OF CYCLES OF DEMOCRACY: Approaching concept of “democracy” Disaggregating concept into component parts (i.e., elections, representation, citizens’ rights, provision of social justice and/or material benefits, etc.) Challenge: Obtaining valid and reliable measurements

More Related