Basic Concept for the Democracy Ranking: A4
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Why No Democracy in the Arab-Muslim World? the Importance of Temple Financing and Tax Farming
= = = = = = = Why No Democracy in the Arab-Muslim World? The Importance of Temple Financing and Tax Farming Bo Rothstein Rasmus Broms = = = = = = = = = QoG WORKING PAPER SERIES 2010:24= = THE QUALITY OF GOVERNMENT INSTITUTE Department of Political Science University of Gothenburg Box 711 SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG December 2010 ISSN 1653-8919 © 2010 by Bo Rothstein and Rasmus Broms. All rights reserved. Why No Democracy in the Arab-Muslim World? The Importance of Temple Financing and Tax Farming Bo Rothstein Rasmus Broms QoG Working Paper Series 2010:24 December 2010 ISSN 1653-8919 Abstract The absence of a single democracy in the Arab-Muslim world has become a “striking anomaly” for scholars of democratization. The lack of democratization in this part of the world cannot be seen as caused religion as such since there are by now several states with a majority of Muslims that have become democracies. Several other explanations such as values, culture, economic development, rulers’ access to natural resources or the history of colonialism have been refuted. We present a novel explanation for this puzzle that is based on historical variations in “temple financing”. In Northwestern Europe, religion and also secular services managed by local religious institutions have been financed “from below” creating local systems for semi- democratic representation, transparency and accountability. In the Arab-Muslim region, religion and local secular services have been financed “from above” by private foundations that have lacked systems for representation and accountability. It is thus not religion, but how religion has been financed, that is the explanation for the lack of democracy in the Arab-Muslim world. -
The Basic Concept for the Democracy Ranking of the Quality of Democracy
The Basic Concept for the Democracy Ranking of the Quality of Democracy David F. J. Campbell September 29, 2008 David F. J. Campbell Research Fellow University of Klagenfurt Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF) Institute of Science Communication and Higher Education Research (WIHO) A-1070 Vienna, Austria [email protected] http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/wiho Recommended citation: Campbell, David F. J. (2008). The Basic Concept for the Democracy Ranking of the Quality of Democracy. Vienna: Democracy Ranking. © Copyright by David F. J. Campbell, 2008. All rights reserved. Table of Contents Abstract ...............................................................................................................3 1. What is democracy? Short review of conceptual definitions..........................4 2. The empirical spreading of democracy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: The need for distinguishing between different qualities of democracy ...........................................................................................................7 3. Initiatives for an empirical measurement of democracies in global context: Freedom House, Polity IV, Vanhanen’s Index of Democracy, and Democracy Index..................................................................................................................10 4. Minimum or maximum definitions of democracy? Short review of concepts of the quality of democracy ..............................................................................17 5. The basic concept for the -
Democracy and Reconfigured Power in Africa Richard Joseph
“The third wave of democracy did sweep across much of sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s, but has now subsided, except for ripples and eddies.” Democracy and Reconfigured Power in Africa richarD Joseph n July 2009, President Barack Obama declared This is an appropriate moment, therefore, to in Accra, Ghana, that Africa no longer needs step back from the volatility and try to under- Istrongmen—it needs strong institutions. stand the deeper dynamics of political change Almost a year later, at a meeting of the African and continuity in the region. In this exercise, Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Secretary of State the perspective of Richard L. Sklar, a longtime Hillary Clinton contended that many African lead- student of African affairs and retired professor of ers seem more concerned with staying eternally political science at the University of California, in power than with ably serving their people. In Los Angeles, is helpful. Sklar has argued for the some cases, she said, democracy “as one election, importance of studying power and the means by one time” still prevails. which it is acquired and exercised. He contends How much do these views correspond with what that all governmental systems are mixed, and is taking place in African countries? What patterns everything that is good in governance may not emerge in the configuration of political power? And necessarily be “democratic.” finally, how do we assess Africa’s democratic pros- Sklar calls attention, for example, to the sig- pects in light of global developments? nificance of oligarchic entities, such as the US As once impregnable autocracies fall in North Supreme Court or the British House of Lords, Africa, the people of sub-Saharan Africa can in capitalist democracies. -
Democracy and the Environment: How Political Freedom Is Linked with Environmental Sustainability
sustainability Article Democracy and the Environment: How Political Freedom Is Linked with Environmental Sustainability Elias G. Carayannis 1,*, David F. J. Campbell 2,3,4 and Evangelos Grigoroudis 5 1 School of Business, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA 2 Department for Higher Education Research, Danube University Krems, 3500 Krems, Austria; [email protected] 3 Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Universitätsstrasse 7, 1010 Vienna, Austria 4 Department of Science Communication and Higher Education Research, Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt, 9020 Klagenfurt, Austria 5 School of Production Engineering and Management, University Campus, Technical University of Crete, Kounoupidiana, 73100 Chania, Greece; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: This paper aims to explore a possible relationship between democracy and the environment, more specifically between freedom and environmental sustainability (environmental performance). The conceptual lenses of the Quadruple and Quintuple Innovation Helix Frameworks were used as they emphasize the importance of democracy and ecology (environmental sustainability) for knowledge and innovation and vice versa. The empirical model focused on the following research question: What is the correlation between political freedom and environmental performance? In essence, all countries in the world with a population of one million or more were included (a total of 156 countries), and the reference year was 2016. The empirical outcome of the correlation analysis Citation: Carayannis, E.G.; was a positive Pearson correlation of about 0.56 (or 0.73 if we examine regional country groups), Campbell, D.F.J.; Grigoroudis, E. and, perhaps even more significantly, this correlation was significant at the 0.001 level (two-tailed). -
Electronic Democracy the World of Political Science— the Development of the Discipline
Electronic Democracy The World of Political Science— The development of the discipline Book series edited by Michael Stein and John Trent Professors Michael B. Stein and John E. Trent are the co-editors of the book series “The World of Political Science”. The former is visiting professor of Political Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Emeritus Professor, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The latter is a Fellow in the Center of Governance of the University of Ottawa, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and a former professor in its Department of Political Science. Norbert Kersting (ed.) Electronic Democracy Barbara Budrich Publishers Opladen • Berlin • Toronto 2012 An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-3-86649-546-3. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org © 2012 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. (CC- BY-SA 4.0) It permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you share under the same license, give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ © 2012 Dieses Werk ist beim Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH erschienen und steht unter der Creative Commons Lizenz Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Diese Lizenz erlaubt die Verbreitung, Speicherung, Vervielfältigung und Bearbeitung bei Verwendung der gleichen CC-BY-SA 4.0-Lizenz und unter Angabe der UrheberInnen, Rechte, Änderungen und verwendeten Lizenz. -
International Organizations and Democratic Backsliding
The Unintended Consequences of Democracy Promotion: International Organizations and Democratic Backsliding Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Anna M. Meyerrose, M.A. Graduate Program in Political Science The Ohio State University 2019 Dissertation Committee: Alexander Thompson, Co-Advisor Irfan Nooruddin, Co-Advisor Marcus Kurtz William Minozzi Sara Watson c Copyright by Anna M. Meyerrose 2019 Abstract Since the end of the Cold War, international organizations (IOs) have engaged in unprecedented levels of democracy promotion and are widely viewed as positive forces for democracy. However, this increased emphasis on democracy has more re- cently been accompanied by rampant illiberalism and a sharp rise in cases of demo- cratic backsliding in new democracies. What explains democratic backsliding in an age of unparalleled international support for democracy? Democratic backsliding oc- curs when elected officials weaken or erode democratic institutions and results in an illiberal or diminished form of democracy, rather than autocracy. This dissertation argues that IOs commonly associated with democracy promotion can support tran- sitions to democracy but unintentionally make democratic backsliding more likely in new democracies. Specifically, I identify three interrelated mechanisms linking IOs to democratic backsliding. These organizations neglect to support democratic insti- tutions other than executives and elections; they increase relative executive power; and they limit states’ domestic policy options via requirements for membership. Lim- ited policy options stunt the development of representative institutions and make it more difficult for leaders to govern. Unable to appeal to voters based on records of effective governance or policy alternatives, executives manipulate weak institutions to maintain power, thus increasing the likelihood of backsliding. -
Running on Fumes: Findings of the European Catch-Up Index 2019
Running on Fumes Findings of the European Catch-Up Index 2019 Marin Lessenski Open Society Institute – Sofia August 2020 The Catch-Up Index 2019 About EuPI The European Policy Initiative (EuPI) of Open Society Institute – Sofia Foundation aims to contribute to improving the ability of new member states to effectively impact common European policies through good quality research, policy recommendations, networking and advocacy. The initiative operates in the eleven new member states from CEE through a network of experts and policy institutes. Web-site http://www.osis.bg Web-site: http://www.TheCatchUpIndex.eu 2 www.TheCatchUpIndex.eu The Catch-Up Index 2019 About the report The report “Running on Fumes: Findings of the European Catch-Up Index 2019" presents the findings of the European Catch-Up Index project of the European Policies Initiative (EuPI) of Open Society Institute - Sofia Foundation (OSI-Sofia) supported by a grant from Open Society Foundations (OSFs). This product is for non-commercial use only. The views expressed in the report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of OSI-Sofia or OSFs. © OSI-Sofia, August 2020 3 www.TheCatchUpIndex.eu The Catch-Up Index 2019 Contents About Index 2019 ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Running on Fumes: Index 2019 Highlights .................................................................................................... 9 Categories, scores and ranks: About -
Democracy Ranking
At a glance April 2016 Democracy ranking In recent years, there has been a trend to rank various phenomena affecting our daily lives: corruption, happiness, education systems and universities, cities, business practices, press freedom and democracies. While rankings can be a useful source of information, they can also have negative effects on public policy if not used critically. Although most rankings are based on carefully thought out constructs and methodologies, each is still the result of simplification and selection of criteria by its designers. Ranking differences Ranking of democracies is no exception to the issues encountered in other ranking practices. Democracy is a complex concept. There is no unique model of quality of democracy on which everyone agrees. That is why there are several rankings of democracies and each uses slightly different criteria. However, EU Member States rank well in most of them. Definition of democracy and 'good' democracy According to some authors examining the quality of democracies, the minimum criteria for a political system to be considered a democracy are: universal adult right to vote; recurring, competitive, free and fair elections; system of multiple parties; and more than one source of information. Further criteria on which democracies can also be ranked are freedom and equality. A 'good' democracy provides a stable institutional structure that supports the liberty and equality of its citizens. 'Freedom in the World' ranking 'Freedom in the World', by the independent US watchdog Freedom House, is the longest running democracy ranking, assessing countries annually since 1972. Its latest, 2016, report for now provides the most recent data on the state of world democracy (i.e. -
Interpretation on Left and Right-Wing Populism with Foreign Policy
Interpretation on Left and Right-Wing Populism with Foreign Policy: Evo Morales and Viktor Orban By Yuancheng Zhang Submitted to Central European University Department of International Relations In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in International Relations Supervisor: Professor Andrew X. Li Word Count: 12760 CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2018 Abstract Cas Mudde warned the academia that there is an isolation in current populism study when it comes to geographic location of case choice, and the connection between populism and diplomacy is not emphasized. This thesis will focus on locating the role of populist discourse in foreign policy in the cases of Morales and Orban. Inclusionary and exclusionary theory will be employed to interpret the populist discourse of both cases. The research uses types of populism, left-wing populism and right-wing populism in the case of our research, as independent variables; foreign policy aggressiveness for selected regimes is the dependent variables in our this research; the democratic level of chosen regimes is the controlled variable which will be explained in content that populism can be democratic or not, but we need to avoid the influence of this issue to get a more clear conclusion on the dependent and independent variables. CEU eTD Collection ii Table of Contents Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... -
Tunisia and Egypt in the Post-Arab Spring Process
Democratic Transitions in Comparative Perspective: Tunisia and Egypt in the Post-Arab Spring Process Author: Nazim Eryilmaz Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107424 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2017 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. DEMOCRATIC TRANSITIONS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: TUNISIA AND EGYPT IN THE POST- ARAB SPRING PROCESS NAZIM ERYILMAZ A Master’s thesis submitted to the Faculty of the program in Middle Eastern Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Graduate School April 2017 © Copyright 2017 NAZIM ERYILMAZ DEMOCRATIC TRANSITIONS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: TUNISIA AND EGYPT IN THE POST-ARAB SPRING PROCESS NAZIM ERYILMAZ Advisor: Professor Ali Banuazizi, Ph.D. Abstract How can one think of the possibility of emergence of democracy in non-Western countries? Such an idea had been approached in pessimism for a long time in academia. This is because the conditions deemed indispensable for democratic development (such as high rates of urbanization and literacy) rarely existed in those countries. Thus, the concept “Western democracy” was considered an oxymoron, since, according to earlier scholars of democracy, only Western polities could meet the conditions/prerequisites for the genesis of democracy. Nevertheless, this long-held prophecy was challenged as non-Western countries demonstrated significant progress towards establishing a democratic rule, despite having “so-called” unfavorable conditions (such as religion or poor economic performance) to democratic development. Despite this global resurgence of democratic governance, the countries in the Middle East and North Africa were never able to develop a democratic rule, a situation that has long been explained by pointing at the “exceptional” characteristics (primarily Islam) inherent in the region. -
THE 2004 ISRAELI DEMOCRACY INDEX Auditing Israeli Democracy Attitudes of Youth
The President's Conference June 2004 ISRAELI DEMOCRACY EXAMINED THE 2004 ISRAELI DEMOCRACY INDEX Auditing Israeli Democracy Attitudes of Youth Asher Arian,Shlomit Barnea, Pazit Ben-Nun AUDITING ISRAELI DEMOCRACY – 2004 Attitudes of Youth Asher Arian, Shlomit Barnea, Pazit Ben-Nun The Israel Democracy Institute is an independent body that assists the Knesset and its committees, government offices and institutions, local government bodies, and political parties through studies and proposals designed to bring about changes and reforms in their manner of operation. In addition, The Israel Democracy Institute fulfills its public charge through the presentation of comparative information on legislative topics and the various ways in which democratic regimes function. Likewise, it seeks to enrich public discourse and encourage new ways of thinking through the initiation of discussion on topics of current political, social and economic interest, both by bringing together legislators, administrators and academics and through the publication of research findings. The Guttman Center was established at The Israel Democracy Institute in 1998 with the transfer of The Guttman Institute for Applied Social Research to the IDI. Formed in 1949 by Professor Louis Guttman, The Guttman Institute was the pioneer in Israel of public opinion research and advances in social science methodology. The goal of The Guttman Center is to enrich research projects at the IDI and discussions of public policy with data-based information and analyses. The President's Conference June 2004 ISRAELI DEMOCRACY EXAMINED THE 2004 ISRAELI DEMOCRACY INDEX Auditing Israeli Democracy Attitudes of Youth Asher Arian, Shlomit Barnea, Pazit Ben-Nun The Guttman Center of The Israel Democracy Institute Editor-in-Chief: Uri Dromi Administrative Head, Publications Department: Edna Granit Library Editor: Yael Mosheiff Linguistic Editor: Miri Horowitz Translation: Sagir International Translations Ltd. -
Democracy and Autocracy 18
Democracy and Autocracy Vol. 18(1) Feb. 2020 “Is Democracy Promotion Dead?” Democracy and Autocracy Section American Political Science Association Published by the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED), University of Michigan VOL.18(1) Democracy and Autocracy Feb. 2020 New Decade, New Name, New IN THIS ISSUE Home Executive Editors’ Note New Decade, New Name, New Home …2 Dan Slater and Rob Mickey, Executive Editors Dan Slater, Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professor of Emerging Democracies, University of Michigan Democracy Promotion: Dead, Dying, or Rob Mickey, Associate Professor of Political Science, Dormant?…3 University of Michigan Matthew Cebul, Guest Editor It has been nearly twenty years since APSA established What We Know—and Don’t—About its first organized section devoted entirely to the topic Democratization, and Why it Matters for of democratization. Much has changed since then, from Democracy Promotion…5 the burst of democratic optimism of the early 2010s Erica Frantz and Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz to the more recent wave of autocratic reaction. These changes are reflected in the new name for both our Democracy Promotion and Conflict: organized section and our newsletter. What was once the Successes and Continuing Challenges…10 section on Comparative Democratization and its Annals Jennifer Raymond Dresden, Thomas Edward Flores, of Comparative Democratization is now captured by one Irfan Nooruddin shared name: Democracy and Autocracy. Democracy Promotion in an Age of The new decade has not only brought our newsletter Democratic Backsliding…16 a new name, but a new home. This is the inaugural Ellen Lust and David Waldner issue published by the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED) at the University of Michigan.