Measuring Democracy and Dictatorship Tuesday February 3 2015 1 00 PM Reading Quiz 8 Q A corresponds to Chapter 5 1 The economic growth rate in Bangladesh in 2000 was 3 7 What kind of measure is this Interval 2 3 4 7 PACL classifies countries as democracies or dictatorships Their measure of democracy is a nominal measure Imagine that the true value of economic inequality in country X is 4 on a scale from 1 10 Say there are four people who code the level of economic inequality in country X using two different measures of inequality A and B Measure A yields values of 2 3 5 and 6 Measure B yields values 6 6 7 and 6 Is Measure A or Measure B a more reliable measure of democracy in country X B is more reliable Imagine that the true value of democracy in country X is 5 Say there are four people who code the level of democracy in country X using two different measures of democracy A and B Measure A yields values of 3 4 6 and 7 Measure B yields values 6 6 7 and 6 Is Measure A or Measure B a more valid measure of democracy in country X A is more valid 5 A minimalist conceptualization of democracy classifies a country as being democratic if it has certain institutions 6 Say you had the following hypothesis Democracies are more likely than dictatorships to join international organizations If you want your hypothesis to be falsifiable which measure of democracy should you use You could use either measure and the hypothesis would be falsifiable The PACL measure of democracy classifies a country as a democracy if i the chief executive is elected ii the legislature are elected iii more than one party competes and iv there has been an alternation in power The Freedom House measure classifies a country s level of freedom based on many criteria including whether the government is accountable the level of corruption if minorities are autonomous if people are treated equally under the law if they have equality of opportunity and so on Say you had the following hypothesis Governments are less corrupt in democracies than in non the chief executive is elected ii the legislature are elected iii more than one party competes and iv there has been an alternation in power The Freedom House measure classifies a country s level of freedom based on many criteria including whether the government is accountable the level of corruption if minorities are autonomous if people are treated equally under the law if they have equality of opportunity and so on Say you had the following hypothesis Governments are less corrupt in democracies than in non democracies If you want your hypothesis to be falsifiable which measure of democracy should you use PACL Throughout all of history democracy has been widely regarded as the very best kind of government available FALSE Imagine we wanted to measure temperature The measure comfortable uncomfortable is an example of what kind of measure Nominal 10 Imagine we wanted to measure temperature The measure 45 7 degrees C is an example of what kind of measure Interval 8 9 Measuring Democracy Three measures of democracy Democracy Dictatorship DD PACL Polity IV Freedom House Conceptualization Minimalist View Substantive View Democracy depends on the presence of institutions no reference to outcomes DD PACL and Polity IV Institutions are necessary but not sufficient to characterize regimes Representation accountability economic equality transparency justice and so on Freedom House Not enough to simply have elections in order to be a democracy Democracy Dictatorship DD A country is a democracy if The chief executive is elected The legislature is elected There is more than one party competing in elections There has been an alteration in power under identical electoral rules i ii iii iv If these conditions do not hold then the country is a dictatorship Democracy Dictatorship DD A country is a democracy if The chief executive is elected The legislature is elected There is more than one party competing in elections There has been an alteration in power under identical electoral rules i ii iii iv If these conditions do not hold then the country is a dictatorship A country is either a dictatorship or a democracy Contested elections are a necessary but not sufficient condition for DD classification of democracies Must have an alteration in power Difficult to distinguish between regimes in which a incumbents never lose because they are popular b incumbents hold elections only because they know they will not lose them Japan Mexico DD is a minimalist view of democracy DD treats regime type as a dichotomy democracy or dictatorship Polity IV Provides an annual evaluation of democracy and autocracy Democracy Measure 0 10 Autocracy Measure 0 10 From these two measures it provides a Polity Score Polity Score Democracy Measure Autocracy Measure 10 to 10 Polity 5 to 5 Mixed regimes Empirical scope is 190 countries from 1800 to the present Based on five attributes Competitiveness of executive recruitment Openness of executive recruitment Executive constraints Regulation of participation Competitiveness of participation Each attribute is weighted differently worth a different number of points all points are weighted and the score is figured Freedom House Not a measure of democracy but of global freedom Freedom has two broad categories Political rights right to vote compete for office Civil rights freedom of speech Based on Universal Declaration of Human Rights Classifies countries as Free Partly Free and Not Free Full report of the amount of freedom each country has on a global scale Not a measure of democracy but of global freedom Freedom has two broad categories Political rights right to vote compete for office Civil rights freedom of speech Based on Universal Declaration of Human Rights Classifies countries as Free Partly Free and Not Free Full report of the amount of freedom each country has on a global scale Country is awarded points 1 7 scale Political rights Civil rights Country is awarded points 1 7 scale Average these 7 point scales free 1 2 5 partly free 3 3 5 or not free 5 5 7 Free and fair elections Corruption Government accountability and transparency Right to organize Competitive opposition Minorities autonomy Freedom House takes a substantive view of democracy Political Rights Questions Civil Rights Questions Media free and independent Free religious organizations Independent judiciary Equal treatment under the law Free trade unions Equality of opportunity Property rights Evaluating Measures
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