Measuring democracy:

1
Measuring democracy

• Can it be done?

2
Problem

• How can we systematically assess whether a
  country is a liberal democracy or not?

3
Solutions

1. Clarify what you mean decide what kinds of
   criteria you should assess
2. Consider whether you can develop operational
   measures for the criteria you want to assess
3. Decide whether these should be qualitative
   (judgmental) or quantitative

4
Criteria What do we expect to find in a
democracy?

• Inclusiveness
• all or almost all of the adult population
  entitled to vote
• Elections
• free and fair elections -- elections with choice
• Competition for power public contestation

5
Dimensions of liberal democracy
hi Public Contestation lo
lo hi Inclusiveness
6
Using quantitative indicators

• What are they?
• Numerical indicators, sometimes based on
  quantitative data e.g. Gross national product
• Sometimes based on expert judgments, e.g. placing
  a country on a scale
• Examples
• Freedom House Scores
• Human development index

7
Freedom House Scores

• Freedom House
• an NGO or non-profit org. dating from World War
  II
• Assesses democracy in 193 countries by examining
  the availability of
• Political rights
• civil liberties
• Uses reports, assessments by scholars experts
  to rate each country on a 7 point scale
• 1 is high......7 is low
• www.freedomhouse.org

8
Political rights

• 10 scales in three subcategories
• Electoral Process (3 questions)
• Political Pluralism and Participation (4)
• Functioning of Government (3)

9
Civil liberties

• 15 scales in four categories
• Freedom of Expression and Belief (4 questions)
• Associational and Organizational Rights (3)
• Rule of Law (4)
• Personal Autonomy Individual Rights (4)

10
Overall ratings

• Free mean score of 1.0 - 2.5
• Partially Free mean score 3.0 5.0
• Not free mean score 5.5 - 7.0
• Some scores

11
Freedom in the World 2007 Country Subscores

Country PR CL Status A B C D E F G
                     
Canada 1 1 F 12 16 12 16 12 15 16
Egypt 6 5 NF 1 4 2 6 2 5 7
Iran 6 6 NF 3 4 3 4 2 3 4
Pakistan 6 5 NF 2 6 3 8 6 4 6
Russia 6 5 NF 3 5 3 8 4 4 7
12
Library Session

• Friday, September 21st, L1015