Block I. Democracy - Democratic Quality - Democratization

1. Introduction

Course Overview

Course Requirements

Recommended reading:

Saward, Michael. 1994. Democratic Theory and Indices of Democratization. In Defining and Measuring Democracy, edited by D. Beetham. London: Sage.

2. What is Democracy?

Required reading:

Schmitter, P. C., & Karl, T. L. (1991). What democracy is... and is not. Journal of democracy, 2(3), 75-88.

Recommended reading:

Collier, D., & Levitsky, S. (1997). Democracy with adjectives: conceptual innovation in comparative research. World Politics, 430-451.

3. Democratic Quality

Required reading:

Munck, G. L. (2016). What is democracy? A reconceptualization of the quality of democracy. Democratization, 23(1), 1-26.

Recommended reading:

Diamond, L., & Morlino, L. (2004). The quality of democracy: An overview. Journal of Democracy, 15(4), 20-31.

Berg-Schlosser, D. (2004). The quality of democracies in Europe as measured by current indicators of democratization and good governance. Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 20(1), 28-55.

4. Democratic Consolidation

Required reading:

Schedler, A. (1998). What is democratic consolidation?. Journal of Democracy, 9(2), 91-107.

Recommended reading:

Linz, Juan and Alfred Stephan (April 1996): "Towards Consolidated Democracies." Journal of Democracy, 7(2), 34-51.

Schedler, A. (2001). Taking uncertainty seriously: the blurred boundaries of democratic transition and consolidation. Democratization, 8(4), 1-22.

5. Democratic Backsliding

Required reading:

Bermeo, N. (2016). On democratic backsliding. Journal of Democracy, 27(1), 5-19.

Recommended reading:

Croissant, A., & Haynes, J. (2021). Democratic regression in Asia: introduction. Democratization, 28(1), 1-21.

Greskovits, B. (2015). The hollowing and backsliding of democracy in East Central Europe. Global Policy, 6(S1), 28-37.

Block II. Measuring Democracy and Democratization

6. Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy

Required reading:

Collier, D., & Adcock, R. (1999). Democracy and dichotomies: A pragmatic approach to choices about concepts. Annual Review of Political Science, 2(1), 537-565.

Recommended reading:

Munck, G. L., & Verkuilen, J. (2002). Conceptualizing and measuring democracy: Evaluating alternative indices. Comparative Political Studies, 35(1), 5-34.

Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Altman, D., Bernhard, M., Fish, S., Hicken, A., ... & Teorell, J. (2011). Conceptualizing and measuring democracy: A new approach. Perspectives on Politics, 247-267.

7. Measuring Democratic Consolidation

Required reading:

Schneider, C. Q., & Schmitter, P. C. (2004). Liberalization, transition, and consolidation: Measuring the components of democratization. Democratization, 11(5), 59-90.

Recommended reading:

Altman, D., & Pérez-Liñán, A. (2002). Assessing the quality of democracy: Freedom, competitiveness, and participation in eighteen Latin American countries. Democratization, 9(2), 85-100.

Greene, S. R. (2020). Coups and the consolidation mirage: lessons for stability in new democracies. Democratization, 27(7), 1280-1300.

8. Measuring Democratic Backsliding

Required reading:

Bakke, E., & Sitter, N. (2020). The EU’s Enfants Terribles: Democratic Backsliding in Central Europe since 2010. Perspectives on Politics, 1-16.

Recommended reading:

Lührmann, A., Mechkova, V., Dahlum, S., Maxwell, L., Olin, M., Petrarca, C. S., ... & Lindberg, S. I. (2018). State of the world 2017: autocratization and exclusion?. Democratization, 25(8), 1321-1340.

Mechkova, V., Lührmann, A., & Lindberg, S. I. (2017). How much democratic backsliding?. Journal of Democracy, 28(4), 162-169.

Block III. Democratic Indices

9. Freedom House

Required reading:

Giannone, D. (2010). Political and ideological aspects in the measurement of democracy: the Freedom House case. Democratization, 17(1), 68-97.

Recommended reading:

Högström, J. (2013). Does the choice of democracy measure matter? Comparisons between the two leading democracy indices, Freedom House and Polity IV. Government and Opposition, 48(2), 201-221.

Vaccaro, A. (2021). Comparing measures of democracy: statistical properties, convergence, and interchangeability. European Political Science, 1-19.

10. Bertelsmann Transformation Index

Required reading:

Merkel, W. (2004). Embedded and defective democracies. Democratization, 11(5), 33-58.

Recommended reading:

Brusis, M. (2005). Assessing democracy, market economy and political management: the Bertelsmann Transformation Index and Southeastern Europe. (CAP Policy Research, 1/2005).

Lavrič, M., & Bieber, F. (2020). Shifts in Support for Authoritarianism and Democracy in the Western Balkans. Problems of Post-Communism, 1-10.

11. V-Dem Index

Required reading:

Teorell, J., Coppedge, M., Lindberg, S., & Skaaning, S. E. (2019). Measuring polyarchy across the globe, 1900-2017. Studies in Comparative International Development, 54(1), 71-95.

Recommended reading:

Lührmann, A., Marquardt, K. L., & Mechkova, V. (2020). Constraining governments: New indices of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal accountability. American Political Science Review, 114(3), 811-820.

Boswell, J., & Corbett, J. (2021). Democracy, Interpretation and the “Problem” of Conceptual Ambiguity: Reflections on the V-Dem Project’s Struggles with Operationalizing Deliberative Democracy. Polity, 53(2), 000-000.

12. Final Session: Comparing Indices for Measuring Democracy

Required reading:

Munck, G. L., & Verkuilen, J. (2002). Conceptualizing and measuring democracy: Evaluating alternative indices. Comparative Political Studies, 35(1), 5-34.

Recommended reading:

Møller, J., & Skaaning, S. E. (2010). Beyond the radial delusion: Conceptualizing and measuring democracy and non-democracy. International Political Science Review, 31(3), 261-283.

Fleuss, D., & Helbig, K. (2020). Measuring Nation States’ Deliberativeness: Systematic challenges, methodological pitfalls, and strategies for upscaling the measurement of deliberation. Political Studies, 0032321719890817.