Quality Of Democracy Research Articles

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.

The emigrant political participation in Morocco and Tunisia: diasporic civil society and the transnationalization of citizenship in the Arab Spring context

ABSTRACTThe Jasmine Revolution has expressed the urgency for political change in several Arab countries. For the first time in Tunisia’s history, Tunisians Living Abroad (TLA) were able to vote from their respective countries, under the control of an Independent Electoral Body. In Morocco, the king anticipated the revolution and reformed the constitution basing it upon some universal democratic values in collaboration with political parties. The debate regarding the vote and emigrant representation culminated in the inclusion of four articles on emigrant rights in the new constitution. This article reviews theories of transnationalism and emigrant political participation, which are the major topics of further discussions on legislative and administrative measures for emigrant votes; explores diasporic participation at the two elections in Arab Spring context; and makes a comparative synthesis between the Tunisian and Moroccan progression/regression of democratic quality regarding emigrant political participation. The article’s main contribution is that it questions what progress has been made in terms of political participation by the diaspora in both cases – whether there is a genuine desire to expand political opportunities leading to an implementation of real measures, or on the contrary it is all a zero-sum game instrumentalising Tunisia’s and Morocco’s widely-touted progress to put behind them that difficult stage of the Arab revolutions where civic struggles were transnationalised by the diaspora.

Public Agendas and Policy Agendas in Three Western European Countries: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis

AbstractIn any democratic system, the question of whether governments pay attention to citizens’ needs and requests represents a crucial component of democratic quality. But what conditions favour this fundamental democratic process? This article compares policy priorities identified by public opinion with the actual legislative production in Italy, Spain and the UK from 2003 to 2012. The article’s methodology is a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in which causal conditions are represented by politico-institutional and contextual factors, while the outcome consists of the degree of overlap between public opinion priorities and legislation. Empirical analysis shows that there are four paths leading to a correspondence in priorities: first, it is linked to the combination of high government decision-making capacity and declining citizens’ trust in government; second, it is also linked to the combination of rising citizens’ trust and low government decision-making capacity. Third and fourth, priorities also correspond where there is a simultaneous absence of both trust and elections, and in the absence of both decision-making capacity and elections, respectively.

Realizing public values: enhancement or obstruction? Exploring value tensions and coping strategies in the co-production of social care

ABSTRACTWe examine the potential of co-production to enhance or obstruct the realization of public values by analysing what value tensions co-producers experience and what coping strategies they follow. In-depth study of a social care initiative in Flanders shows that co-production enhances the realization of values relating to services delivered, relationships between public servants and citizens, and the democratic quality of the service delivery process. However, public servants and citizen co-producers experience tensions between values, such as efficiency, individual freedom of co-producers, reciprocity, and inclusion. In trying to deal with these value tensions, public servants are found to follow a variety of coping strategies, whereas citizen co-producers tend to escalate tensions or avoid coping with them. The type of coping strategy followed, however, influences if and what values are ultimately represented in the service delivery process and its results.

Power-sharing and democratization in Africa: the Kenyan experience

The institution of power-sharing has over the past years become known as a mechanism for conflict resolution and even a factor of democratization. While power-sharing proved certain effectiveness in overcoming political crises, its positive impact on democratization is contested. Although existing research has focused extensively on the relationship between power-sharing and democratization, some areas of this phenomenon remain under-researched. This is particularly true of power-sharing in the form of ad hoc political practices based on a temporary agreement of political elites resulting in the establishment of a government of national unity. This paper approaches the gap in understanding both conceptual levels of the phenomena through a case study of Kenya as a country which underwent a period of power-sharing and where elections have historically played an important role in the country’s path towards democratization. The paper provides an analysis of the impact of power-sharing on the democratic quality of elections and argues that the power-sharing government in Kenya eventually contributed to democratization although its impact on different areas of assessment varied.

A Framework for Assessing Democratic Qualities in Collaborative Economy Platforms: Analysis of 10 Cases in Barcelona

The term “collaborative economy” or “collaborative economy platforms” refers to exchange, sharing, and collaboration in the consumption and production of capital and labor among distributed groups, supported by a digital platform. Collaborative economies’ use is growing rapidly and exponentially, creating high expectations of sustainability and their potential to contribute to the democratization of the economy. However, collaborative economy platforms lack a holistic framework to assess their sustainability and pro-democratization qualities. In addition, there is confusion about platforms which present themselves as collaborative when they actually are not, and similar uncertainties and ambiguities are associated with diverse models. To address this confusion, this article provides a framework for assessing the pro-democratic qualities of collaborative economy initiatives. It was applied to 10 cases in the context of the city of Barcelona. The methods used in this study include mapping and typifying 10 collaborative economy cases in the city, structured and in-depth interviews, and a co-creation session. The results indicate the presence of several modalities for favoring democratic values in a collaborative economy.

Mapping Albania’s Path in the 1990s: Between Authoritarianism and Democratisation

For nearly half a century as one of the most repressive communist dictatorships of Eastern Europe, thoroughly lacking a democratic political culture, Albania is considered to have undergone a prolonged and difficult transition towards liberalisation. Despite the political transformations that occurred in the beginning of the 1990s, the democratic quality continued to be influenced by the legacies of the past. In this context, the article focuses on the trails of Albania’s political behaviour during the new pluralistic order where features of authoritarianism and intolerance were continuously manifested by the country’s leadership. Given the frequent instability atmosphere, the article analyses and assesses the key moments of the first post-communist decade by trying to demonstrate that the need to build a proper democratic political system was (un)intentionally ignored by the ruling elite in turns, consequently leading to a rather distorted picture of Albania’s transition path in the 1990s.

Rethinking “democratic backsliding” in Central and Eastern Europe – looking beyond Hungary and Poland

ABSTRACTThis essay introduces contributions to a special issue of East European Politics on “Rethinking democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe”, which seeks to expand the study of democratic regression in CEE beyond the paradigmatic cases of Hungary and Poland. Reviewing these contributions, we identify several directions for research: 1) the need to critique “democratic backsliding”, not simply as a label, but also as an assumed regional trend; 2) a need to better integrate the role of illiberal socio-economic structures such as oligarchical structures or corrupt networks; and 3) a need to (re-)examine the trade-offs between democratic stability and democratic quality. We also note how insights developed researching post-communist regions such as Western Balkans or the post-Soviet space could usefully inform work on CEE backsliding. We conclude by calling for the study of CEE democracy to become more genuinely interdisciplinary, moving beyond some narrowly institutionalist comparative political science assumptions.

Legislating Patient Representation: A Comparison Between Austrian and German Regulations on Self-Help Organizations as Patient Representatives

Governments are increasingly inviting patient organizations (POs) to participate in healthcare policymaking. Byinviting POs that claim to represent patients, representation comes into being. However, little is known about the circumstances under which governments accept POs as patient representatives. Based on the analysis of relevant legislation, this article investigates the criteria that self-help organizations (SHOs), a special type of PO, must fulfil in order to be accepted as patient representatives by governments in Austria and Germany. Thereby, it aims to contribute to the discussion on the role of governments in steering SHOs. There are different degrees of regulation (very little in Austria, more in Germany). Governments in both countries not only formulate explicit criteria for SHOs with respect to patient representation but also guide SHOs representing patients through implicit criteria for associations. We discuss the findings against concepts of responsiveness, authorization, and accountability. Our findings indicate that governmental steering is not negative per se as indicated by previous research but-depending on legislative criteria-can promote transparency and democratic quality in patient representation.

State of the world 2017: autocratization and exclusion?

ABSTRACTThis article presents evidence of a global trend of autocratization. The most visible feature of democracy – elections – remains strong and is even improving in some places. Autocratization mainly affects non-electoral aspects of democracy such as media freedom, freedom of expression, and the rule of law, yet these in turn threaten to undermine the meaningfulness of elections. While the majority of the world’s population lives under democratic rule, 2.5 billion people were subjected to autocratization in 2017. Last year, democratic qualities were in decline in 24 countries across the world, many of which are populous such as India and the United States. This article also presents evidence testifying that men and wealthy groups tend to have a strong hold on political power in countries where 86% of the world population reside. Further, we show that political exclusion based on socio-economic status in particular is becoming increasingly severe. For instance, the wealthy have gained significantly more power in countries home to 1.9 billion of the world’s population over the past decade.

The Impact of Governance on Income Inequality in Ten Asian Countries

This study utilizes panel data analysis over the 1996 to 2015 period to investigate the impact of governance quality (including democratic quality and technical quality) on income inequality in ten Asain countries, classified as “advanced economies” and “emerging market and developing economies”. The empirical results show that the impacts of democratic quality and technical quality on income inequality are significantly negative within “emerging market and developing economies”. However, for the “advanced economies”, the effects of democratic quality and technical quality on income inequality are nonsignificantly positive and significantly positive, respectively. These findings imply that promoting good governance is useful to reduce income inequality for “emerging market and developing economies” but the effect may not be effective for “advanced economies.

Representative Claims in Healthcare: Identifying the Variety in Patient Representation

In many countries patient involvement is high on the healthcare policy agenda, which includes patient representation in collective decision-making. Patient organizations are generally considered to be important representatives of patients. Other actors also claim to represent patients in decision-making, such as politicians, healthcare professionals, and client advisory councils. In this paper we take a broad view of patient representation, examining all the actors claiming to represent patients in the Dutch debate on the decentralization of care. We conclude that variety in forms of representation could help do justice to the variety of patient preferences. In addition we conclude that in order to ensure the democratic quality of patient representation, actors making representative claims have to reflect on how their claims relate to each other and how they can ensure authorization and accountability in the representative relationship with those they claim to represent.

Consolidated technocratic and ethnic hollowness, but no backsliding: reassessing Europeanisation in Estonia and Latvia

ABSTRACTThis article contributes to the growing debate on democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), by expanding on Béla Greskovits’s distinction between backsliding and hollowness, suggesting ways to broaden and specify the concept of hollowness, and discussing the relationship between hollowness and backsliding. Estonia and Latvia provide illustrations of two stable democracies, which nevertheless have consolidated tendencies for an elite-driven and ethnic-majority-driven democratic process hollowed out of its democratic contestation. This is what I call “technocratic” and “ethnic” hollowness. This double hollowness consolidated during EU accession, which created a favourable context for well-positioned ethnic majority elites to push forward ethnocentric and neoliberal agendas while restricting the space for debating them. However, far from a symptom of backsliding in the sense of a regression into authoritarianism, double hollowness is in fact central to these democracies’ stability. Such stability will have to be destabilised in order to improve their democratic quality.

Democratic governance (Studi mengenai governability dalam pengembangan UMKM berbasis e-commerce di Kota Yogyakarta)

<p align="center"> The development of technological progress has had a significant impact on. The impact is the same access to information that flows very quickly and easily. Alternative,. Changes in the centralistic direction towards decentralization. Of course, this is in accordance with the spirit of local economic development at the regional level. This study uses a qualitative approach, where the main question that arises is how to achieve local economic development. Based on this, it is necessary to make efforts to spur economic growth in exploiting the market. Later, this research is focused on the role of government in conducting program of empowerment of UMKM based on e-commerce, and role of government in using dialogue room. Therefore, the target of this research is the UMKM which has been assisted by the government through e-commerce. Based on this, the formulation of the problems that are built is 1) How the role of local government of Yogyakarta in the development of UMKM based e-commerce, 2) How the quality of the use of space dialogue in the development of UMKM-based e-commers. This research uses qualitative approach. The result of this research is the ability of government in developing UMKM with linear e-commerce based on democratic governance quality, that is empowerment and p</p>

“Tying incumbents' hands”: The effects of election monitoring on electoral outcomes

Electoral observation missions (EOM) are designed to promote improvements in democratic quality by overseeing elections, but how successful are they? We argue that EOM tie the hands of incumbents, who have to adjust their electoral misconduct strategies, thus opening up political competition and making it more likely that the opposition will do well. Moreover, we propose that monitoring effects are conditioned by regime type, expecting that EOM presence has a stronger impact on electoral competition in autocracies than in democracies. Using a dataset of 580 parliamentary and presidential elections in 108 countries between 1976 and 2009 we find support for our theoretical claims. EOM increase electoral competitiveness in dictatorships by reducing margins of victory for incumbents, but leave competition unaffected in democracies. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that, contrary to previous findings, EOM increase the probability of electoral turnover in dictatorships but have no effect on democracies.

Cidade vista de dentro

O presente artigo busca articular à noção de democracia a de participação, na perspectiva de aumento da qualidade democrática. A participação democrática se efetua de maneira concreta no espaço local, na cidade. A partir da experiência de cogestão de uma ocupação cultural em Ermelino Matarazzo, firmada entre coletivos culturais e a Secretaria de Cultura do Município de São Paulo, através de entrevista com um dos participantes do movimento, busca-se refletir sobre formas de articulação entre democracia representativa e democracia participativa, novas institucionalidades que permitam experimentações, sendo o campo da cultura privilegiado para isso.

Party System Change and the Quality of Democracy in East Africa

This article explores in greater detail the nexus between party system change and democratic qualities. In doing so, we do not simply assess whether, how, and to what extent qualities of democracy in East Africa are affected by the instability of the patterns of interparty competition (fluidity of the party system); we also plan to show how the subcomponents of party system fluidity (frequency of change, scope of change, variety of change) influence the democratic qualities. By disaggregating fluidity in its constitutive elements and by testing how each of them affects the qualities of democracy, we find that while the frequency of change has a beneficial impact on the qualities of democracy, the other subcomponents of fluidity—namely, the “scope” and “variety” of system change—have a consistently negative effect on democratic quality.Related Articles Nwokora, Zim, and Riccardo Pelizzo. 2015. “.” Politics & Policy 43 (): 453‐473. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12124/full Pelizzo, Riccardo, and Zim Nwokora. 2016. “.” Politics & Policy 44 (): 1017‐1052. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12188/full Ikeanyibe, Okechukwu. 2014. “.” Politics & Policy 42 (): 769‐804. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12094/full Related Media The East African. 2018. “Wachira Maina, Africa's Constitutional Democracies.” March 12. http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Africa-constitutional-democracies/2558-4338554-15s7ca3z/index.html BBC Africa. 2016. “Debate: Is Africa Reinventing Democracy?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJc2b47EiGE ISS Africa TV. 2016. “The Future of Democracy in Africa.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQiTtArtupE Babones, Salvatore. 2018. “Midnight in America with Riccardo Pelizzo.” February 16‐27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=advrSqmO96g&t=13s

Democratic Regression through Violence? Analyzing the Impact of Violence and Organized Crime on the Quality of Democracy in Mexico

Violence in its different expressions and exercised by various state and non-state actors is currently one of the most pressing problems and challenges for various nations worldwide, as it has adverse effects on the entire political and social life of a population and hence on the democratic quality. Despite these empirical observations, the relationship between violence, violent non-state actors and the quality of democracy is still unclear and under-examined as the prevalent democracy assessments have yet to incorporate these developments sufficiently in their measurements. In the debate about democratic regression through violence, understood as a loss of democratic quality, Mexico is an especially interesting case. After completing its democratic transition in 2000, expectations arose that Mexico would transform to a functioning democracy. However, with the declaration of the war on drugs in 2006 the country slid into a spiral of violence that was unknown up until that point. This violence, which has continued to accelerate until now, as well as the increasing presence of organized criminal groups give cause to analyze whether these factors have an adverse effect on the quality of democracy. The following article will answer this question by analyzing the quality of the Mexican democracy and its development between 2000 and 2015. The analysis is carried out by the empirical application of the 15-Field-Matrix of Democracy, which was complemented by context-specific indicators to measure the mentioned factors. The thesis is that Mexico has experienced a democratic regression due to the presence of organized criminal groups and the high level of violence. The article suggests that violence and the presence of violent non-state actors should generally be included in detail in a democracy assessment to achieve a more valid measurement of democratic quality, and it provides inductive generated indicators to achieve this.

Food Insecurity and Conflict Events in Africa

Abstract The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between food insecurity and conflict events short of war in Africa, taking account of a host of mediating factors, including the degree of inequality, the level of development, democratic quality, quality of governance and the degree of government expenditure, which we incorporate into our analysis. Our results suggest that food price volatility does contribute significantly to conflict events measured by political events in Africa (ACLED). Greater democracy can engender more conflict, but in a non-linear fashion. The broader V-DEM participatory index of democracy also encourages more protest. Our governance variables are significant, emphasising the salience of state capacity in this regard. An innovation of our study is the inclusion of inequality. We deploy two metrics of vertical inequality: the GINI coefficient and the broader V-DEM egalitarian index. The GINI index of income inequality has a counter-intuitive statistically insignificant sign, suggesting that greater income equality or middle-class share of income results in greater political unrest. We also utilise political measures of inter-group horizontal inequality which significantly engender conflict risk.

Democracia, representación y participación ciudadana, a la búsqueda de un equilibrio que la Constitución no logró

Resumen:A la hora de regular el modelo de democracia y los mecanismos de participaciónciudadana, la Constitución de 1978 fue conformista y prudente. Estableció un modelo de democracia representativa basado en la posibilidad de elegir representantes cada cuatro años, pero sin especiales fórmulas de control y exigencias de responsabilidad política hacia ellos. Por lo demás, estableció una regulación restrictiva de los instrumentos de democracia directa y semidirecta, en especial del referéndum y de la iniciativa legislativa popular.Cuatro décadas después, las exigencias ciudadanas se han intensificado, generándose un cierto déficit de confianza entre electores y representantes. El trabajo analiza los principales déficits de la Constitución de 1978 en la materia, realizando varias propuestas para mejorar la calidad democrática, que en buena parte implican una amplia reforma constitucional: eliminar las restricciones constitucionales del referéndum y la iniciativa popular, incorporar vías de exigencia de responsabilidad y rendición de cuentas, limitar los mandatos del presidente, asegurar la democracia interna de los partidos políticos, eliminar algunas prerrogativas de los parlamentarios, entre otros.Abstract:When regulating the model of democracy and the mechanisms of citizen participation, the Constitution of 1978 was conformist and prudent. It established a model of representative democracy based on the possibility of electing representatives every four years, but without special formulas of control and demands of political responsibility towards them. Moreover, it established a restrictive regulation of the instruments of direct and semi-direct democracy, especially the referendum and popular legislative initiative. Four decades later, citizen demands have intensified, generating a certain lack of trust between voters and representatives. The paper analyzes the main deficits of the 1978 Constitution in the matter, making several proposals to improve the democratic quality, which in large part imply a broad constitutional reform: eliminate the constitutional restrictions of the referendum and popular initiative, incorporate channels of exigency of responsibility and accountability, limiting the president’s mandates, ensuring the internal democracy of political parties, eliminating some prerogatives of parliamentarians, among others. Summary:1. Representative democracy, direct democracy institutions, and citizen participation in Spanish Constitution: context and conditioning factors. 2. Some citizen participation institutions. 2.1. Referendum. 2.2. Popular initiative of Law. 2.3. The open council. 2.4. Participation in Administration. 2.5. The jury and others. 3. Four decades later, a crisis of confidence? 4. The task of democratic regeneration: good governance, participation, trust. 5. Development and legal reforms. 6. A task always pending: constitutional reform. 7. Conclusions