DEMOCRACY and ITS SUBTYPES Quantitative Inquiry and the Regime Question
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MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA V BRNĚ FAKULTA SOCIÁLNÍCH STUDIÍ Katedra politologie DEMOCRACY AND ITS SUBTYPES Quantitative Inquiry and the Regime Question magisterská diplomová práce Tomáš Hudeček Vedoucí práce: Doc. PhDr. Jan Holzer, Ph.D. UČO: 13603 Obor: PL Imatrikulační ročník: 2005 Bergen, 2007 ,,Prohlašuji, že jsem předkládanou diplomovou práci zpracoval sám a že jsem uvedl všechny použité prameny.“ “Herewith I confirm that the thesis I have submitted is my own effort, does not refer to another person’s work without an explicit reference, and has all references listed in the bibliography.” 13603 Bergen * acknowledgments * First, I must thank my supervisor Doc. PhDr. Jan Holzer, Ph.D. This text would not come into existence without his deliberate advice and encouragement combined with goodwill and patience. I wish to acknowledge the contribution of The EEA/Norwegian Financial Mechanisms Program in the field of Support of Co-operation among Schools/Scholarships. Without their financial support this thesis would not have been produced in Bergen. Special thanks must go to Mike Alvarez whose ideas and lectures on political regimes as well as the heated debates within the seminar meetings were much of an inspiration. This is the right place to acknowledge my parents for their kind backing, and to thank my grandmother who did pray for the success of my enterprise. I also want to say thanks to Marie - France a great friend and partner in all the various discussions. I have to appreciate the readiness of the ‘Czech Crew’ and the ‘Devil of Murcia’ to excuse me from all the parties that have happened during this semester. Last but not least, I would like to mention the couple living above me, whose midnight activities made me remember that life is not typing … and of course … love toM contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 6 CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE ......................................................................... 9 1.1 An Outline on Concepts in Political Science........................................................ 10 1.2 The Ladder of Generality...................................................................................... 11 1.3 Essentially Contested Concepts............................................................................ 14 1.4 Concluding the Conceptual Issue ......................................................................... 17 DEFINING DEMOCRACY FOR EMPIRICAL RESEARCH...................................... 19 2.1 Two Classical Definitions in Democracy Studies ................................................ 20 2.2 Democratic Method .............................................................................................. 20 2.3 Polyarchy .............................................................................................................. 24 2.4 Critique ................................................................................................................. 30 2.4.1 Normative ontological critique...................................................................... 31 2.4.2 Empirical-analytical critique......................................................................... 32 2.5 Concluding the Definition Issue ........................................................................... 38 QUANTITATIVE INQUIRY INTO DEMOCRACY IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS.................................................................................... 41 3.1 An Outline on Quantitative Inquiry into Democracy ........................................... 42 3.2 Przeworski – Alvarez – Cheibub – Limongi ........................................................ 43 3.2.1 Definitions and methodology......................................................................... 43 3.2.2 Types of political regimes.............................................................................. 46 3.3 Freedom in the World Survey............................................................................... 47 3.3.1 Definitions and methodology......................................................................... 48 3.3.2 Types of Political Regimes............................................................................. 51 3.4 Polity Project......................................................................................................... 53 3.4.1 Definitions and methodology......................................................................... 54 3.4.2 Types of Political Regimes............................................................................ 58 3.5 Index of Democratization ..................................................................................... 60 3.5.1 Definitions and Methodology......................................................................... 61 3.5.2 Types of Political Regimes............................................................................. 63 3.6 Alternative Measures of Democracy .................................................................... 65 3.6.1 Revised Index of Democracy.......................................................................... 65 3.6.2 Polyarchy Scale ............................................................................................. 67 3.7 Concluding the Quantitative Efforts to Measure Democracy............................... 69 3.7.1 Assessing Quantitative Measures of Democracy........................................... 69 3.7.2 Quantitative Measures and the Nature of Democracy .................................. 73 3.7.3 Quantitative Measures and Types of Political Regimes ................................ 75 Suggestions for Further Research................................................................................... 78 references.................................................................................................................... 79 data sets....................................................................................................................... 85 155 763 znaků včetně mezer * list of tables * TABLE 1-1 – Ladder of Generality in Comparative Politics Research ... 12 TABLE 1-2 – Democracy as an Essentially Contested Concept ... 16 TABLE 2-1 – Requirements for Democracy ... 25 TABLE 2-2 – Indicators of the Conditions for Polyarchy ... 29 TABLE 2-3 – Mediating Principles of a Democratic System ... 34 TABLE 2-4 – Components Crucial for Functioning Democracy ... 35 TABLE 2-5 – Indices of Audit’s Democratic Criteria ... 36 TABLE 2-6 – Defining a Concept: Case of Democracy ... 40 TABLE 3-1 – Large-N Data Sets on Democracy ... 42 TABLE 3-2 – Operational Rules for Democracy, ACLP ... 45 TABLE 3-3 – Operational Rules for Political Regimes, Freedom House ... 50 TABLE 3-4 – Key to Raw Points, FH ... 51 TABLE 3-5 – Political Rights and Civil Liberties Ratings, and Status - FH ... 51 TABLE 3-6 – Construction of Democracy and Autocracy Indicators in POLITY IV ... 57 TABLE 3-7 – Additive definitions and interpretations for competition and participation ... 62 TABLE 3-8 – Indicators of Political Democracy, Bollen ... 67 TABLE 3-9 – Variables of Polyarchy and Their Categories, Coppedge – Reinicke ... 68 TABLE 3-10 – A Framework for the Analysis of Data on Democracy ... 70 TABLE 3-11 – An Overview of Introduced Data Sets on Democracy ... 71 TABLE 3-12 – An Evaluation of Introduced Data Sets on Democracy ... 72 * list of figures * FIGURE 1-1 – Moving Along the Ladder of Generality ... 12 FIGURE 2-1 – Schumpeterian Differentiation between Regimes ... 23 FIGURE 2-2 – Location of Political Regimes along the Two Dimensions ... 27 FIGURE 2-3 – The Continuum of Political Regimes ... 28 FIGURE 2-4 – The Democratic Pyramid ... 35 FIGURE 3-1 – Political Regimes in the World by Type – ACLP, 1959-1990 ... 47 FIGURE 3-2 – Political Regimes in the World by Type – Freedom House, 1973-2005 ... 53 FIGURE 3-3 – Political Regimes in the World by Type – Polity IV, 1946 – 2004 ... 60 FIGURE 3-4 – Political Regimes in the World by Type, Vanhanen 1946-2000 ... 65 5 INTRODUCTION 6 “The triumph of the West, of the Western idea, is evident first of all in the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism.” (Fukuyama 1989: 3) “Yet the 21st century could well turn out to be not the democratic century, but the “post-democratic” century – the century in which liberal democracy as we know it is slowly, almost imperceptibly, replaced by a new form of global governance.” (Fonte 2004: 117) Even if the possibilities of empirical inquiry into democracy have been outlined by Joseph Schumpeter (1942) and Robert A. Dahl (1971), most of the research was done since the 80’s. The reason for the increasing scientific interest into democracy might be simple as Samuel Huntington puts it (1991 in Diamond et al. 1996: 3): “Between 1974 and 1990, at least 30 countries made transitions to democracy, just about doubling the number of democratic governments in the world.” Huntigton’s “Third Wave” (1991) might be as well considered to be the real starting-point of the scientific inquiry into democracy. Supported by the events of the last decade of the 20th century and ideas of Francis Fukuyama (1989: 3) on the final triumph of the western-type liberal democracy over its systematic and ideological alternatives, democracy became a fashionable term and a kind of “democratic-research industry” developed. According to Freedom House data, 117 of world’s 191 countries could be considered democratic by January 1996 – the most ever in