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Varieties of Democracy is the essential user's guide to The Varieties of Democracy project (V-Dem), one of the most ambitious data collection efforts in comparative politics. This global research collaboration sparked a dramatic change in how we study the nature, causes, and consequences of democracy. This book is ambitious in scope: more than a reference guide, it raises standards for causal inferences in democratization research and introduces new, measurable, concepts of democracy and many political institutions. Varieties of Democracy enables anyone interested in democracy - teachers, students, journalists, activists, researchers and others - to analyze V-Dem data in new and exciting ways. This book creates opportunities for V-Dem data to be used in education, research, news analysis, advocacy, policy work, and elsewhere. V-Dem is rapidly becoming the preferred source for democracy data.
Defining democracy as a system of government in which important choices in public policy depend, in a systematic way, upon public opinion, Albert Weale argues that its key justification is its capacity to enable members of society to advance their common interests as political equals in a situation of human fallibility. Contrasting this justification with accounts of democracy based on the idea of autonomy, he argues that a satisfactory theory of democracy must presuppose the existence, at least to some degree, of common purpose among the citizens. The book elaborates this account of democratic government in relation to models of democracy ranging from accounts of direct democracy, inspired by Rousseau, to liberal constitutionalist theories that stress the importance of limited government.
Democratization and Research Methods summarizes what researchers know about why countries become and remain democracies, and why they often do not. It also evaluates the various methods social scientists use to answer such questions. Michael Coppedge draws lessons that can be applied to any political phenomenon that is studied comparatively.
This book combines two strands of international political economy; examining how capitalism and democracy shape and are shaped by each other. Although until now considered separately, this path-breaking book proposes an innovative view of a political-economic system that inextricably links the model of capitalism to the type of democracy, where continuation is mutually reinforced. Advanced countries have achieved post-war affluence by adopting one of two contrasting models of capitalism; liberal market economies or coordinated market economies, and two opposing types of democracies: consensus or majoritarian democracies. Expert contributors in the field consider the question of whether and how globalization is transforming the post-war political–economic systems of advanced countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as the question of how it is shaping democracy and capitalism combinations in former socialist countries in Eastern Europe and the new "capitalist" China. The book examines various topics, including party system change, a political dilemma of the established party, and corporate governance reforms, to posit an original an innovative theory of international political economy. Variety of Capitalism, Types of Democracy and Globalization will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, political economy and globalization.
Evaluates the most important explanations for democratization and democratic decline, using new global data extending across modern history.
How institutional engineering affects the life of democracies
"One of the most important books on political regimes written in a generation."—Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling author of How Democracies Die A new understanding of how and why early democracy took hold, how modern democracy evolved, and what this history teaches us about the future Historical accounts of democracy’s rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer—democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished—and when and why they declined—can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future. Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, Stasavage first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent—as in medieval Europe—rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong—as in China or the Middle East—consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. He then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world—and its transformation is ongoing. Amidst rising democratic anxieties, The Decline and Rise of Democracy widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance.
Although democracy is a widely held value, concrete measurement of it is elusive. Gerardo L. Munck’s constructive assessment of the methods used to measure democracies promises to bring order to the debate in academia and in practice. Drawing on his years of academic research on democracy and measurement and his practical experience evaluating democratic practices for the United Nations and the Organization of American States, Munck's discussion bridges the theories of academia with practical applications. In proposing a more open and collaborative relationship between theory and action, he makes the case for reassessing how democracy is measured and encourages fundamental changes in methodology. Munck’s field-tested framework for quantifying and qualifying democracy is built around two instruments he developed: the UN Development Programme’s Electoral Democracy Index and a case-by-case election monitoring tool used by the OAS. Measuring Democracy offers specific, real-world lessons that scholars and practitioners can use to improve the quality and utility of data about democracy.
In Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship, scholars from a wide range of disciplines reflect on the transformation of the world away from the absolute sovereignty of independent nation-states and on the proliferation of varieties of plural citizenship. The emergence of possible new forms of allegiance and their effect on citizens and on political processes underlie the essays in this volume. The essays reflect widespread acceptance that we cannot grasp either the empirical realities or the important normative issues today by focusing only on sovereign states and their actions, interests, and aspirations. All the contributors accept that we need to take into account a great variety of globalizing forces, but they draw very different conclusions about those realities. For some, the challenges to the sovereignty of nation-states are on the whole to be regretted and resisted. These transformations are seen as endangering both state capacity and state willingness to promote stability and security internationally. Moreover, they worry that declining senses of national solidarity may lead to cutbacks in the social support systems many states provide to all those who reside legally within their national borders. Others view the system of sovereign nation-states as the aspiration of a particular historical epoch that always involved substantial problems and that is now appropriately giving way to new, more globally beneficial forms of political association. Some contributors to this volume display little sympathy for the claims on behalf of sovereign states, though they are just as wary of emerging forms of cosmopolitanism, which may perpetuate older practices of economic exploitation, displacement of indigenous communities, and military technologies of domination. Collectively, the contributors to this volume require us to rethink deeply entrenched assumptions about what varieties of sovereignty and citizenship are politically possible and desirable today, and they provide illuminating insights into the alternative directions we might choose to pursue.
Explores ways to make democracy work better, with particular focus on the integral role of local institutions.