Democracy and its subtypes.Quantitative Inguiry and the Regime Question

Mgr. Tomáš Hudeček

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The main goal of this thesis is to introduce the efforts of political science and comparative politics in quantitative inquiry into democracy, to critically assess and evaluate the outcomes of nearly quarter-century of intensive research. In the first chapter – Concepts in Political Science – theoretical conceptual issues are going to be at stake. Conceptual confusion in political science and in the social sciences in general is a considerable source of difficulty, and inconsistent application of concepts throughout the theory and empirical analysis threatens the coherence of research and the accumulation of findings and knowledge in the study of politics. Therefore the problems of concept formation and misformation are going to be examined. The second chapter – Defining Democracy for Empirical Research – is considered to be a broader introduction to the outcomes of the ‘behavioral revolution’ in social sciences. As a consequence of which political scientists turned their attention to the procedural component of democracy. In current democracy studies or at least in the quantitatively oriented part of the field two definitions stand out. The definitions and approaches to democracy of the two classics – the Schumpeterian democratic method and Dahlian concept of polyarchy – as well as the critique that followed are going to be addressed. Following chapter – Quantitative Inquiry into Democracy in Comparative Politics – will describe current efforts in studying democracy. At least nine data sets on democracy, whose objective was to assess large number of world’s states emerged until nowadays. Six data sets are going to be introduced, Przeworski – Alvarez – Cheibub – Limongi (2000), the Freedom House Survey, Polity Project, Vanhanen’s Index of Democratization, and two alternative measures of democracy – Bollen’s Revised Index of Democracy and the Polyarchy Scale by Coppedge and Reinicke. Different conceptualizations of democracy, methodology and aggregation of the data sets, and finally, the political regimes measured will be emphasized in each study. In assessing the current efforts, two main issues are going to be addressed – the conceptual controversy and validity; and the problem whether to treat and subsequently measure democracy either as a dichotomous or continuous variable. The second issue is closely connected with the regime question, i.e. the contribution of the quantitative inquiry to categorizing political regimes all around the world, which will be evaluated at the very end. Finally, some suggestions for further research will close the enterprise.

Keywords

concept formation, democracy, measurement, ACLP, Freedom House Survey, Polity Project, Index of Democratization, Revised Index of Democracy, Polyarchy Scale

Language used: Czech

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 22. 5. 2007

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 12. 6. 2007
• Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Jan Holzer, Ph.D.
• Reader: PhDr. Věra Stojarová, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Master programme / field:
Political Science / Political Science