Evaluations Of Democracy Research Articles

More (of) Democracy: European Citizens’ Views and Evaluations of Democracy

Social and political theory recognizes several conjunctural, as well as long-term factors that shape how citizens conceptualize democracy and what they expect from it. Based on Round 10 of the European Social Survey, we analyse how Europeans view and evaluate democracy, distinguishing liberal (basic) model and several additions, such as social-democratic, participatory and populist models (that we analyse integrated as alternative model of democracy). We explore whether liberal and alternative models of democracy are mutually complementary or exclusionary, and which model prevails, but also to what extent there are discrepancies between the normative elements and evaluated outcomes. The paper examines whether and how the length of historical experience with democracy (operationalized through different waves of democratization) influences the predominant normative of democracy, as well as evaluations of the implemented standards. Finally, in the last section, the aim of the analysis is to draw conclusions on the profile of both proponents of liberal and alternative models of democracy but also of critical citizens, who value democracy as an ideal, while remaining wary in terms of its empirical manifestations.

ԺՈՂՈՎՐԴԱՎԱՐԱԿԱՆ ԱՐԺԵՔՆԵՐԻ ՀԱՆԴԵՊ ՎԵՐԱԲԵՐՄՈՒՆՔԻ ՁԵՎԱՎՈՐՈՒՄՆ ԱՆԳԼԵՐԵՆԻ ՀԱՂՈՐԴԱԿՑԱԿԱՆ ՈՒՍՈՒՑՄԱՆ ԳՈՐԾԸՆԹԱՑՈՒՄ / FORMATION OF ATTITUDES TO DEMOCRATIC VALUES IN THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

The article deals with the problem of perception and evaluation of democracy as a sustainable value among students in the process of communicative English teaching. The recognition and achievement of democratic values, first of all, contributes to the formation of an independent personality, who values justice, equality, the rule of law, who speaks several languages and is able to communicate and act in the modern multilingual and multicultural world. The work specifically clarifies the idea that the school has ceased to be just a source of knowledge. Knowledge is not the only criterion and does not make a person competitive in the world. It is considered as a way to achieve the set of goals. Emphasis is placed on the formation of a number of skills, competences and values along with knowledge. Taking into account the fact that the phenomenon is still new in the Republic, the practical implementation of democracy in school requires consistent work. The principles and process of teaching, as well as the applied language material, should be aimed at providing practical results. The article reveals some possible tasks that, in our opinion, can be used in the classroom in the process of teaching English to form students' attitudes to democratic values.

Theory amidst complexity – using process tracing in ex‐post evaluations

AbstractEvaluators who take a complexity‐aware approach must consider tradeoffs related to theoretical parsimony, falsifiability, and measurement validity. These tradeoffs may be particularly pronounced with ex‐post evaluation designs in which program theory development and monitoring frameworks are often completed before the evaluator is engaged. In this chapter, we argue that theory‐based evaluation (TBE) approaches can address unique ex‐post evaluation challenges that complexity‐aware evaluation (CAE) alone cannot, and that these two sets of approaches are complimentary. We will outline strategies that evaluators may use to conduct rigorous ex‐post evaluations of democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) interventions that merge CAE's inductive approaches with a theory‐testing structure. It will illustrate these strategies with two case studies of ex‐post evaluation using process tracing (PT).

Pride and prejudice: Chinese citizens’ evaluations of democracy in the United States, India and Taiwan

How citizens in authoritarian regimes evaluate the practice of democracy in both new and established democracies has important implications on the prospect of democratisation in their own country. As an authoritarian country with the largest population around the world, China has resisted waves of democratisation and maintains the one-party rule. This study examined the Chinese case and explored how Chinese citizens evaluated democracy in the United States, India and Taiwan. It theorised that the tendency towards ingroup favouritism and attitudes towards democracy are the factors that primarily influence citizens’ evaluations of democracy in other countries. The results show that Chinese citizens perceive the democratic level of China as being as high as that of the United States and Taiwan, whereas they gave lower evaluations in the case of India’s democracy. The effects of the aforementioned factors varied between the three countries. After presenting the findings, the theoretical implications are also discussed.

중국의 영향력과 권위주의의 확산

Does the rise of China impact individuals' evaluation of democracy and autocracy? This article explores how autocracy diffusion comes up among individuals in neighboring countries of China. Using Asian Barometer Survey data between 2010 and 2019, I argue that the emergence of China can affect individuals' assessments of autocratic norms and practices in neighboring countries of China. The empirical results support that individuals in East Asian countries are more likely to assess authoritarian norms and practices positively when an individual evaluates the influence of China more positively. This tendency is more inclined in democratic countries than autocracies. The findings suggest that the emergence of strong autocracy can negatively impact individuals' evaluation of democratic norms and values.

How democratic is government really? The impact of subnational regime variation on evaluations of democracy

AbstractDemocracy is not an exclusively national concept, and subnational governments vary in respect for democratic norms and institutions. In subnational authoritarian enclaves, incumbents manipulate elections using fraud, corruption, institutional manipulation, or repression to maintain power. While we know a fair amount about how these authoritarian enclaves form and democratize, we know much less about how they affect the people that live in them. Does subnational democracy influence evaluations of democratic performance? I argue that individuals incorporate subnational outcomes into overall evaluations of democracy, and that subnational democracy positively influences these evaluations. To test this argument, I combine a new measure of subnational democracy, the Subnational Electoral Democracy Scale, with the fifth and sixth waves of the World Values Survey. I find that people living in states with high electoral democracy scores are likely to believe that elections are not manipulated, human rights are protected, and that their country is democratic.

Effective Government and Evaluations of Democracy

Ineffective governance is known to weaken support for governments and leaders. However, it is less clear whether these effects spill over to the regime and erode support for the democratic system. This article returns to this classic question, now using time-series, cross-sectional data to test whether the effectiveness of governments in sustaining economic growth, providing quality healthcare, and tackling violent crime affects popular attitudes to democracy. We find that satisfaction with democracy is driven by fluctuations in economic performance and violent crime (but not healthcare quality). Diffuse support for democracy, in contrast, remains relatively impervious to changes in government effectiveness. Violent crime is the only indicator of effectiveness which has an impact on democratic support, and does so indirectly, via its influence on democratic satisfaction. These findings confirm that democratic support—which, unlike democratic satisfaction, is thought to help sustain democracy—is mostly immune to crises of performance.

The Evaluation of Democracy in the new Turkey

Yeni Türkiye söylemi, saltanatın kaldırılarak cumhuriyetin ilan edildiği ve Türk inkılabının uygulandığı iki dünya savaşı arası zaman dilimine işaret eder. Batılı ve ulusal basında bu söyleme sık sık rastlamak mümkündür. Atatürk ise Yeni Türkiye’nin mimarı olarak nitelendirilmiştir. Dolayısıyla Yeni Türkiye ile Atatürk’ün iktidar dönemi iç içe geçmiş, özdeşleşmiştir. Yeni Türkiye’nin inşası sürecinde demokrasi gözden düşmüş, otoriter ve totaliter eğilimli faşist ve komünist ideolojiler iktidara gelmişlerdir. Atatürk devrimlerinin kararlılıkla uygulandığı Yeni Türkiye, dönemin siyasal atmosferinden etkilenmiştir. 1929’da yaşanan dünya ölçeğindeki ekonomik buhran sonrasında, genç cumhuriyetin siyaset ve ekonomisine istikrar kazandırma arayışı yoğunlaşmıştır. Kemalizm prensipleri bu süreçte şekillenmiş, parti devlet bütünlüğü sağlanmış, ancak demokrasi arayışları sonlanmamıştır. Demokratik değerlerin gözden düştüğü 1930’lu yıllarda ulusal ve yabancı basında milli egemenlik, liberalizm, parlamentarizm ve demokrasiyi değerlendiren yazılar kaleme alınmıştır. Dünya tarihinin çalkantılı bu dönemine tezat bir şekilde, Türkiye’de demokrasiyi öven birçok yazı kaleme alınmıştır. Tek parti yönetimine rağmen, Türkiye’nin demokratik bir ülke olduğu ve Atatürk’ün demokrasiye bağlılığı takdir edilmiştir. Bu yazının amacı, Atatürk’ün hedef olarak belirlediği Muasır Medeniyetin ibresinin keskin bir kırılma ile en sağa ve sola kaydığı iki dünya savaşı arası dönemde, kendine istikrarlı bir yön arayan Yeni Türkiye’de demokrasi kavrayışını 1930’lu yılların ulusal ve yabancı basınında yer alan demokrasi okumaları ışığında anlamaya çalışmaktır.

Is Democracy Effective Against Coronavirus? An Analysis of Citizens' Opinions in Italy

The social and political implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are receiving increasing attention in the literature. This article aims to contribute to this fast-growing research programme by focusing on the degree to which Italian citizens perceive democratic institutions as effective in coping with crises like the COVID-19 emergency. We put forward a set of hypotheses whereby negative evaluations of the effectiveness of democracy can be associated with social proximity to the disease and with perceived health and economic threats. We also argued that political factors can interact with such threats. Moreover, we hypothesised that certain factors dealing with the concepts of social capital and civic culture can help inhibit negative opinions about the effectiveness of democracy. To test these hypotheses, we analysed public opinion data collected in Italy between April and July 2020 using a Rolling Cross-Section survey design. The data showed that evaluations of democracy became more negative with social proximity to the disease and with individual perceived vulnerability, understood in health and economic terms. Our findings also highlighted that certain social factors which underpin democracy moderated negative evaluations. Finally, political factors like ideology and government appraisal shaped the relationship between individual threats and evaluations of democracy.

Mongolian democracy: key challenges and opportunities in modern environment

In the last three decades, views about democracy in Mongolia have transformed from high expectations and hopes to perceived failure in performances in political and economic terms. A national and international researchers concluded that at the initial stage of democratization, Mongolians were guided by the general concepts and values of democracy such as human rights, liberty, and freedom of association and expression. Later, these values shifted to more in-depth notions that can be summarized as “democracy is a process for ensuring accountability and justice based on the active engagement of citizens”. This article explores the factors that contributed to democratic challenges and bottlenecks drawing on experts’ interviews conducted by the author and a review of various public opinion surveys assessing democratic performance in Mongolia. The article uses methodologies and tools designed by International IDEA and assesses the applicability of different democratic models to the Mongolian context. It argues that the evaluation of democracy in Mongolia should use additional criteria reflecting Mongolian characteristics. It concludes by suggesting that the enhancement of the democratic mechanism of accountability of public institutions is a key opportunity to consolidate democracy. The experts participating in the assessment viewed the frameworks of executive, pluralist and protective democracy are more suitable for democracy development in Mongolia, and communitarian democracy.

Political legitimacy in western Europe: comparing people’s expectations and evaluations of democracy

ABSTRACT Democratic legitimacy is sometimes measured by comparing what individuals expect of democracy with their evaluations of democratic performance. However, such composite measures hinder our understanding of whether any factors found to shape legitimacy do so through effects on expectations, through effects on evaluations or through effects on both. This article considers people’s democratic expectations and evaluations separately. By modelling each – along with their combination in a measure of legitimacy – it identifies the factors that shape each outcome, and in particular whether any effects on legitimacy run through what people expect of democracy or through their evaluations of democratic performance. Models are run for four different dimensions of democracy to test whether the factors shaping people’s attitudes vary between different aspects of the democratic system. The analysis is conducted using Wave 6 of the European Social Survey (2012-13) on populations across 16 west European countries. Analysis of individual country populations also enables us to identify whether the causes and mechanisms of democratic legitimacy vary between different national contexts.

Ethno-national divisions in Turkey and Israel: a comparison of system support

ABSTRACT This study explores the differences in system support between the ethnic majority and ethnic minority populations in Turkey and Israel, taking into account three specific dimensions of system support: national identity, evaluation of democracy, and institutional trust. A comparison of the gaps in these dimensions is conducted using surveys. The findings show that, in both countries, the majority tends to show higher levels of system support than the minority. Among the Turkish Kurdish minority, lower levels of system support can be found across all the dimensions examined, while among the Palestinian citizens of Israel minority, the gaps are bigger in the cultural aspect of national identity but much smaller in the evaluation of democracy and institutional trust. These findings are discussed in light of both the differences between the two regimes and their dissimilar strategies for addressing ethno-national divisions and the theoretical implications of examining the multidimensionality of system support.

What drives citizens\u2019 evaluation of democratic performance? The interaction of citizens\u2019 democratic knowledge and institutional level of democracy

Alongside citizens’ belief in the legitimacy of democracy, public support for the political regime is crucial to the survival of (democratic) political systems. Yet, we know fairly little about the relationship between citizens’ democratic knowledge and their evaluation of democratic performance from a global comparative perspective. In this article, we argue that the cognitive ability of citizens to distinguish between democratic and authoritarian characteristics constitutes the individual yardstick for assessing democracy in practice. Furthermore, we expect that the effect of citizens’ democratic knowledge on their evaluation of democratic performance is moderated by the institutional level of democracy. We test these assumptions by combining data from the sixth and seventh wave of the World Values Survey and the third pre-release of the European Values Study 2017, resulting in 114 representative samples from 80 countries with 128,127 respondents. Applying multilevel regression modeling, we find that the higher a country’s level of democracy, the more positive the effect of democratic knowledge on citizens’ assessment of democratic performance. In contrast, we find that the lower the level of democracy in a country, the more negative the effect of citizens’ democratic knowledge on their evaluation of democracy. Thus, this study shows that citizens who are more knowledgeable about democracy are most cognitively able to assess the level of democracy in line with country-level measures of democracy. These results open up new theoretical and empirical perspectives for related research on support for and satisfaction with democracy as well as research on democratization.

The trajectory of the process of democratization in Poland in the light of theory, political praxis and external evaluation: 1989–2019

In 1989 Poland decided to implement a democratic regime, but its future was uncertain then. Today, after 30 years of the development of the process of democratization, one can say that the road to democracy is winding. The article analyzes the Polish example of the process of democratization between 1989–2019. It refers to existing theories of the process of democratization and the evaluation of democracy. Although Poland passed through the phases of the erosion of a non-democratic regime, transition and democratic consolidation, the situation after 2015 suggests that there are trends that can reverse the process of democratization. It will be argued that the institutional and behavioral aspects of the process of democratization in Poland cannot be perceived as a linear process.

Democracy belief systems in Europe: cognitive availability and attitudinal constraint

AbstractThere is a growing interest in analyzing what citizens think about democracy. However, gauging citizens’ opinions about a complex concept such as democracy might be hindered by the apparent low levels of political sophistication of mass publics. This paper contributes to the emerging literature on citizens’ views and evaluations of democracy by analyzing to what extent ordinary citizens are capable of developing structured opinions about democracy and its constitutive principles. For this purpose, the paper adapts Converse’s notion of political belief systems to analyze the articulation of individuals’ democracy belief systems (DBS). The first goal of this paper is to conceptualize and operationalize the main components of individuals’ DBS: cognitive availability, horizontal constraint, and vertical constraint. Drawing on data from the sixth round of the European Social Survey, the second goal is to describe the articulation of DBS in Europe. The third and final aim of this paper is to trace the most relevant individual- and country-level correlates of the articulation of the three components of DBS. In line with recent findings about political belief systems in other policy domains, the results indicate that most Europeans have coherently structured attitudes about democracy. However, even if the results imply that Europeans have a relatively articulated DBS, the empirical analysis also reveals some individual- and country-level variation in the articulation of specific components of DBS.

MAJORITY/PLURALITY SYSTEMS: THE CHOICE OF LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES?

The electoral system of a country is related to the political, economic and social areas of life. Their functioning directly or indirectly depends on it and the different types and subtypes of electoral systems produce different effects. The purpose of the current study is to identify if there is a relation between the statute of the least developed countries and their electoral system. The object of the study are countries, defined as least developed in 2018 by the United Nations. The focus is the type of electoral system for the legislative body (or its lower chamber in case of bicameralism) of these countries, their regime type, overall score and the score for electoral process and pluralism according to EIU Democracy Index 2018. For the purposes of the analysis statistical methods (frequencies, hypothesis test and chi-square test) and comparative approach are used. The results show that there is statistically significant relationship between the statute of least developed countries and their electoral system on one hand and their regime type on other. There is also a statistically significant difference in the scores of least developed countries compared to all others regarding the evaluation of democracy and the electoral process and pluralism.

Comparative Analysis on the Policy Formulation of the College Admission System after 2008 - Focusing on the Evaluation of Democracy and Justification -

본 연구는 노무현, 이명박, 박근혜, 문재인 정부의 대입정책 형성과정을 민주성과 정당성의 측면에서 비교분석하여 대입정책 형성과정의 종합적인 특징을 도출하였다. ‘정책 참여자의 대표성과 포괄성’, ‘정책 논의과정의 소통성과 숙의성’, ‘국민의 정책 수용성’이라는 세 가지 평가항목에 따라 연구한 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 대입정책 참여자의 대표성과 포괄성은 대입제도 개선을 위한 별도의 전문기구를 구성하여야 확보될 수 있다. 둘째, 각 정부의 정치적인 성향과 상관없이 최근 들어 대입정책 논의과정에서 전 국민적 소통과 숙의 과정을 더욱 중요시 여기고 있다. 셋째, 대입정책 형성과정의 민주성이 국민의 정책 수용성을 반드시 보장하는 것은 아니다. 분석 결과를 바탕으로, ‘국민참여 정책숙려제’내실화, 대입정책 전문기구의 위상 제고 및 책무성 강조, 대입 3년 예고제 재정비, 학생의 대입정책 참여 법적 보장, 공익 실현 강조 등을 제언하였다.This study focused on the comparative analysis of the Roh Moo-hyun, Lee Myung-bak, Park Geun-hye, Moon Jae-in government s college admission policy formulation. Also, through the evaluation process of democracy and justification, it derived comprehensive features of the policy formulation of the college admission system. The results of the study are as follows. First, the representation of college admission policy participants can be secured only by forming a separate policy specialized agency. Second, the process of public communication and deliberation has become more important in the process of discussing college admission policy, regardless of the political tendency of each government. Third, the democratic nature of the process of forming a college admission policy does not necessarily guarantee public acceptance of the policy. Based on the analysis results, this study propose as follows. First, the public participation policy deliberation system should be substantialized. Second, the accountability of the college admission policy specialized agency should be emphasized. Third, the system that notice the college admission system three years early should be revamped. Fourth, participation of students in policy making should be legally guaranteed. Fifth, a democratic sense of citizenship that seeks to pursue public interests must be raised.

Democratic demand and supply: a spatial model approach to satisfaction with democracy

ABSTRACTSatisfaction with democracy (SWD) is a commonly used indicator, and its determinants have been analysed extensively. But what does dissatisfaction with democracy substantially mean? This paper tests if satisfaction is actually a coherent consequence of citizens considering democratic supply and demand. It starts from the simple idea that satisfaction can be explained by the distance between what “should be” and what “is”; between democratic expectations and reality. I capture this idea in a spatial model of democratic support, where size and direction of the gap between citizens’ expectations and evaluations of democracy determine levels of satisfaction. I use data for 26 countries from the European Social Survey. Taking into account both expectation-surplus and evaluations-surplus gaps, I find that satisfaction is affected by both the size and the direction of the distance between expectations and evaluations. The main finding is that liberal criteria of democratic quality are generally agreed upon amongst citizens, and that a perceived lack of their realization is the strongest predictor of dissatisfaction. Democratic input dimensions like direct participation and output criteria like social justice are more disputed, and create dissatisfaction amongst those wanting more of them as well as those wanting less.

“Everyday Democracy”: an ethnographic methodology for the evaluation of (de-) democratisation

ABSTRACTComparative democracy indices such as Freedom House Nations in Transit underpin many scholars’ perceptions of democratic progress and backsliding. However, these fail to account empirically for practices of deliberation, a central concern in contemporary democratic theory. They also fail to address the ideational nature of emergent global challenges to democracy. This article addresses these domains of empirical neglect by presenting an “Everyday Democracy” approach to democracy evaluation, an ethnographic methodology rooted in an engagement with democratic theory. Data collected in Serbia and Bulgaria is contrasted, revealing a more vibrant and contested public sphere in Serbia, which is usually graded as less democratic. This finding highlights the need for a reassessment of some assumptions that underpin ongoing debates about democratisation, “backsliding” and the evaluation of democracy generally.

Economic performance, quality of democracy and satisfaction with democracy

This study tests the links between economic performance, democratic quality and satisfaction with democracy (SWD) at multiple levels. By analysing a time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) dataset of 57 democracies between 1990 and 2014, it finds the two types of performance matter almost equally: countries with good democratic and economic records tend to show higher levels of SWD than countries without them. Over time, an improvement in ‘objective’ democratic and economic conditions is shown to be related to increasing levels of national SWD. The second part of the study reconfirms these relationships at the individual level by analysing survey data from the “Europeans' understandings and evaluations of democracy” special module of the sixth round of the European Social Survey. It shows that respondents' evaluations of the economy and democracy are strongly related to their SWD. Finally, it demonstrates that the effect of objective democratic and economic performances on SWD is mediated by peoples' evaluations of them.