Measuring Democratic Performance: A Multidimensional Approach

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Gwangeun Choi, University of Essex

Version:  View help for Version V2

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Measuring-Democratic-Performance-ver2.zip application/zip 3.3 MB 08/22/2018 03:55:AM

Project Citation: 

Choi, Gwangeun. Measuring Democratic Performance: A Multidimensional Approach. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-08-22. https://doi.org/10.3886/E101244V2

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary This article constructs the Democratic Performance Index (DPI) as a new measure of democratic quality covering 69 existing democracies over the period from 1990 to 2012. This index contains eight core dimensions of democracy: individual liberties, rule of law, public sphere, transparency, participation, representation, competition, and mutual constraints, which have been extracted from the democracy literature. To this end, first, this paper reviews previous attempts to conceptualize and measure the quality of democracy; second, democratic performance is defined under a middle-range conception of democracy that avoids both minimalist and maximalist approaches, in conjunction with a multidimensional framework. There is no doubt that democracy is multifaceted, but theoretical grounds are not yet enough to combine all the dimensions into a summary measure of democracy. Thus, this inquiry stops aggregating indicators at the level of distinguishable dimensions and preserves information about systematic variation of underlying dimensionality. The DPI is better suited than other measures of democracy for exploring existing democracies not only because it can capture subtle differences among democracies across various dimensions, but also because it overcomes several important issues of conceptualization and measurement embedded in the previous measures.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms democratic performance; democracy
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage global
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1990 – 2012
Universe:  View help for Universe 69 existing democracies: 30 core countries and 39 non-core countries
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) aggregate data

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source Democracy Barometer (DB); Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem)
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation country-year
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit country

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V2 [2018-08-22]

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