Conceptualising and Measuring Democracy Flashcards
What are the 5 steps in the scientific method?
1) Question - Puzzle (e.g. “Money leads to happiness”)
2) Theory or model (a set of logically consistent statements that tell us why the things that we observe occur)
3) Implications (hypotheses)
4) Observe the World (test hypotheses) - we should try our best to falsify them.
5) Evaluation (You need to measure to be able to evaluate) - If we observe implications or expected outcomes, our theory is corroborated (it may be true)
Why can we fail to observe implications (expected outcomes), and still be right?
Our measurements are wrong
What is a deductive view of science?
You start with universal statements such as a theory and then observe the world. In effect, you try to falsify your theory, you look for observations that would show that your theory is wrong.
This deductive view of science is called falsificationism. A scientific theory must be formulated in such a way that it is capable of being tested and potentially proven false.
What is falsifiability?
For a statement or theory to be considered scientific, there must exist a potential empirical observation or experiment that could prove it false.
What are some non-falsifiable statements?
1) Tautologies - A statement that is always true by virtue of its logical structure, rendering it uninformative or redundant.
2) Statements about unobservable phenomena - e.g. “aliens exist”
This does not mean that non-science is nonsense or that these claims are necessarily false.
How do we know a dictatorship when we see one?
According to Gandhi
According to Gandhi: Defining dictatorship should be simple: it is obviously the opposite of democracy, and we should start defining democracy since it’s easier.
What are the two views of democracy?
When it comes to conceptualising and measuring it.
1) Substantive view - emphasizes the importance of achieving certain outcomes, such as social justice, equality, and the well-being of citizens, in addition to the formal procedures of democratic governance.
2) Procedural or Minimalist view - focuses on the formal procedures and mechanisms. Not necessarily specifying the outcomes for the citizens.
What was Dahl’s view of democracy?
Did not believe that any large country in the world was
ever fully democratized. Thus he spoke of “polyarchies.”
Based on two dimensions of electoral democracy: inclusion and constestation.
Inclusion is about who have the right to participate in the political process.
Contestation is about the extent of competing interests and opposition being allowed
What is the Democracy-Dictatorship measurement?
- Dichotomous, nominal measure: A country is either a dictatorship or a democracy
- Minimalistic: Looks at the formal procedures
- Builds on Dahl’s notion of contestation
- Democracy is a regime “in which those who govern are selected through contested elections.”
- A country is a democracy if:
1. The chief executive is elected
2. The legislature is elected
3. There is more than one party competing in elections
4. There has been an alternation in power under identical electoral rules - All four criteria’s need to be met in order to be defined as a democracy
What is the Polity IV measurement?
- Minimalistic, continuous, ordinal measurement
- Based on five attributes:
1. How the chief executive is recruited
2. How open the process is to competitors
3. Executive constraints (not a criteria in DD)
4. Regulation of political participation
5. Competitiveness of participation - Provides an annual evaluation of democracy and autocracy.
Democracy Measure 0-10; Autocracy Measure 0-10 - From these two measures they provide a Polity Score: Democracy Measure – Autocracy Measure (Ranges from –10 to 10)
- 6 to 10 = democracies. -10 to -6 = autocracies.
What is the Freedom House measure?
- Substantive, continuous and ordinal measure
- Not explicitly intended as a measure of democracy, but an annual evaluation of “global freedom”
- Two broad categories: political rights and civil rights
- Classifies countries as Free, Partly Free and Not Free.
Why do we get different answers to whether a state is a democracy or a dictatorship?
It depends on your definition and choice of measurement. It depends on what you want to measure.
How can we evaluate measures?
4 key ways
- Conceptualisation
- Validity
- Reliability
- Replicability
What is conceptualisation?
The process of defining and clarifying abstract ideas or concepts by giving them specific meanings and characteristics.
This depends on what we want to measure (whether we should use a minimalist or substantive, dichotomous or continuous conceptualisation of democracy
What is validity?
And explain which things are important for validity
Refers to the extent to which our measures correspond to the concepts that they are intended to reflect.
Several things are important for validity:
1) Attributes - You might ask whether a particular measure
includes the “correct” attributes. Scholars should avoid using too many.
2) Aggregation issues - when combining or summarizing data from different levels or units into a single, aggregated measure it can be problematic (e.g. Freedom House)
3) Measurement level - Once you have aggregated that attributes, you have to
decide the appropriate measurement level (nominal, ordinal or interval)
