Why Choice Matters: Revisiting and Comparing Measures of Democracy

Measures of democracy are in high demand. Scientific and public audiences use them to describe political realities and to substantiate causal claims about those realities. This introduction to the thematic issue reviews the history of democracy measurement since the 1950s. It identifies four development phases of the field, which are characterized by three recurrent topics of debate: (1) what is democracy, (2) what is a good measure of democracy, and (3) do our measurements of democracy register real-world developments? As the answers to those questions have been changing over time, the field of democracy measurement has adapted and reached higher levels of theoretical and methodological sophistication. In effect, the challenges facing contemporary social scientists are not only limited to the challenge of constructing a sound index of democracy. Today, they also need a profound understanding of the differences between various measures of democracy and their implications for empirical applications. The introduction outlines how the contributions to this thematic issue help scholars cope with the recurrent issues of conceptualization, measurement, and application, and concludes by identifying avenues for future research

Why Choice Matters: Revisiting and Comparing Measures of Democracy

Measures of democracy are in high demand. Scientific and public audiences use them to describe political realities and to substantiate causal claims about those realities. This introduction to the thematic issue reviews the history of democracy measurement since the 1950s. It identifies four development phases of the field, which are characterized by three recurrent topics of debate: (1) what is democracy, (2) what is a good measure of democracy, and (3) do our measurements of democracy register real-world developments? As the answers to those questions have been changing over time, the field of democracy measurement has adapted and reached higher levels of theoretical and methodological sophistication. In effect, the challenges facing contemporary social scientists are not only limited to the challenge of constructing a sound index of democracy. Today, they also need a profound understanding of the differences between various measures of democracy and their implications for empirical applications. The introduction outlines how the contributions to this thematic issue help scholars cope with the recurrent issues of conceptualization, measurement, and application, and concludes by identifying avenues for future research

The Association between Subjective Well-being and Regime Type across 78 countries: the moderating role of Political Trust

This study investigates the association between regime type, political trust, and subjective well-being (SWB) in 78 countries. Differently from previous works, democracy was conceptualized in terms of a multidimensional model (i.e., regime type), rather than a bipolar continuum ranging from authoritarian regimes to full democracies. The first question was raised as to whether regime characteristics would be nonlinearly related to SWB. A second question was examined as to whether political trust could moderate the relationship between regime type and well-being, such that under conditions of high or low trust in the government the differences in well-being across the type of regimes would be reduced. Data from the European Values Study as well as from the World Value Survey were used. Moreover, regime types were defined according to the Varieties of Democracy as well as the Economist Intelligence Unit. Multilevel analyses revealed that life satisfaction scores were lower for electoral autocracy compared to closed autocracy and liberal democracy. Moreover, happiness scores were significantly higher for full democracies compared to authoritarian regimes and flawed democracies. Finally, political trust moderated the association between regime type and SWB. Specifically, at higher or lower levels of political trust, the relationship between regime type and well-being tended to decrease. Overall, the findings support the conclusion that the relationship between democracy and subjective well‐being is nonlinear, and that the role of political trust is as important as the role of democracy

How to combine and analyze all the data from diverse sources : a multilevel analysis of institutional trust in the world

Scholars who want to perform cross-national comparative research rely on data provided by International survey projects, which study the same concepts in varying countries and periods using different question wordings and scales. In this article, we propose a process to combine and analyse the data pertaining to the same concept—institutional trust—when measures and sources differ. We show how we combined 1327 surveys conducted from 1995 to 2017 by 17 survey projects in 142 countries. The database comprises close to 2 M respondents and 21 M answers to trust questions. We use local regression to visualize the trends in trust for different institutions and sources of data in different parts of the world. We complete these analyses with a 4-level longitudinal analysis of repeated measures. These analyses lead to reliably conclude that institutional trust is a property of the institutions themselves and of the context in which they operate since there is much more variance within respondents than between respondents and more variance between countries than over time. This research contributes to the current debates in political trust research. Since the process presented here can be applied to other fields of research, the research also contributes to enhance the possibilities for comparative cross-national analysis

New Evidence on the Oil-Democracy Nexus Utilising the Varieties of Democracy Data

This study re-examines the oil and democracy nexus, which is central to the political resource curse by applying the latest democracy dataset, V-DEM, into the analysis in a sample of 100 Developing Countries, over the period 1935-2014. Our study is a contribution to this taxonomic literature where we improve on previous studies not only by employing a novel democratic data source, but also because we use two definitions of oil wealth which renders our results more robust, besides delineating the sample into small and large oil endowments and looking into the experience of two regions, Latin America and the Middle East. Our analysis highlights nuances in the oil- democracy relationship. First, that there is prima facie evidence for a political resource curse if we do not control for pre-existing institutions that promote democracy. Second, once we decompose the sample into small and large oil endowments, the political resource curse vanishes, and also for Latin America, whilst for oil dependent economies in the Middle East and North Africa it still remains. Third, after controlling for pre-existing institu-tional quality, measured in ou

Evidências de Validade da Escala de Orientação à Dominância Social no Brasil

This study aims to cross-culturally adapt the SDO7 for the Brazilian context, propose a reduced version of the instrument, assess its factor structure and validity evidences. Participants were 1,056 individuals across four different samples collected online. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated the best fit indices for the original four-factor structure, two substantial (Dominance x Anti-Egalitarianism) and two methodological (pro-trait x counter-trait). The substantial factors had Cronbach's alpha values above 0.70 in all samples. Furthermore, both the long and reduced versions of the scale were highly correlated with political self-categorization. Hence, the instrument in its long and reduced versions displayed good validity and reliability evidences for the Brazilian context and can be used in future studies.Este estudio tiene como objetivo adaptar transculturalmente la escala SDO7 para el contexto brasileño, proponer una versión reducida del instrumento, evaluar su estructura factorial y evidencias de validez. Los participantes fueron 1.056 individuos en cuatro muestras diferentes de recolección de datos online. Análisis factoriales confirmatorios indicaron los mejores índices de ajuste para la estructura original de cuatro factores, dos de los cuales son sustanciales (Dominio x Anti-Igualitarismo) y dos son metodológicos (pro-rasgo x contra-rasgo). Los factores sustanciales, llamados "Dominancia social" y "Anti-Igualitarismo", han tenido alfa de Cronbach por encima de 0,70 en todas las muestras. Ambas versiones de la escala presentaron buenas evidencias de validez con altas correlaciones entre los puntajes de los factores sustanciales y la categorización política. Por lo tanto, el instrumento, en sus versiones largas y reducidas, mostró buenas evidencias de validez y confiabilidad para el contexto brasileño y puede usarse en futuros estudios.O presente estudo buscou adaptar a SDO7 para o contexto nacional, propor uma versão reduzida do instrumento, avaliar sua estrutura fatorial e evidências de validade entre grupos. Para tanto, realizou-se coleta de dados online em que participaram 1056 indivíduos de quatro diferentes amostras. Análises fatoriais confirmatórias indicaram os melhores índices de ajuste para a estrutura original de quatro fatores, sendo dois substanciais (Dominância e Anti-Igualitarismo) e dois de método (pró-traço e contra-traço). Os fatores substanciais, denominados “Dominância Social” e “Anti-Igualitarismo”, apresentaram alfa de Cronbach superior a 0,70 em todas as amostras. As versões longa e reduzida da escala apresentaram bons índices de validade de critério entre grupos com correlações altas entre os escores fatoriais dos fatores substanciais e a autocategorização política. Portanto, o instrumento apresentou evidências de validade e fidedignidade para o contexto nacional e podem ser utilizados em estudos futuros

Anti-democratic youth? The influence of youth cohort size and quality of democracy on young people’s support for democracy

This paper aims to investigate whether a country’s youth cohort size and quality of democracy, independently and jointly predict young people’s propensity to support democracy as a political system. We use pooled data from World Values Survey Waves 5–7, comprising 81 country-waves with 25,125 observations from 39 established and new democracies, in multilevel binary logistic regression analyses. The paper finds evidence that firstly, against conventional expectations, a large youth cohort exerts a positive influence on young people’s support for democracy as a political system. Secondly, the effect of youth cohort size depends on the quality of democracy of countries: young people growing as part of the youth cohorts in established democracies show stronger propensities to support democracy than their peers in new democracies. This has implications for both theory and empirical research

Democratic Backsliding in Africa?

Why have most African countries not achieved greater political liberalization? What explains the lack of progress toward the ideals of liberal democracy across the region? This book advances ongoing debates on democratic backsliding with specific reference to Africa. In examining how incumbent leaders in African countries attempt to contain societal pressures for greater democracy, the chapters explain how governments go beyond the standard tools of manipulation, such as electoral fraud and political violence, to keep democracy from unfolding in their countries. The book emphasizes two distinct strategies that governments frequently use to reinforce their hold on power, but which remain overlooked in conventional analyses; —the legal system and the international system. It—documents how governments employ the law to limit the scope of action among citizens and civil society activists struggling to expand democratic liberties, including the use of constitutional provisions and the courts. The work further demonstrates how governments use their role in international relations to neutralize pressure from external actors, including sovereigntist claims against foreign intervention and selective implementation of donor-promoted policies. While pro-democracy actors can also employ these legal and international strategies to challenge incumbents, in some cases to prevent democratic backsliding, the book shows why and how incumbents have enjoyed institutional advantages when implementing these strategies through the six country case studies of Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Method Factors in Democracy Indicators

Method factors represent variance common to indicators from the same data source. Detecting method factors can help uncover systematic bias in data sources. This article employs confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to detect method factors in 23 democracy indicators from four popular data sources: The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Freedom House, Polity IV, and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project. Using three different multi-dimensional concepts of democracy as starting points, we find strong evidence for method factors in all sources. Method-specific factors are strongest when yearly changes in the scores are assessed. The sources find it easier to agree on long-term average scores. We discuss the implications for applied researchers