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Political Concepts
A Working Paper Series of the Committee on Concepts and Methods
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| Axel Hadenius & Jan Teorell, "Assessing Alternative Indices of Democracy," August 2005 |
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| Abstract | | In this paper, we provide evidence of the importance of making a well-founded choice among existing democracy indices. We find that the apparently strong aggregate level correlations among different indices are considerably weakened when computed at different levels of the democracy scale, or within a critical zone surrounding the dichotomous dividing line between democracy and dictatorship. Second, we make an internal assessment of the advantages and drawbacks of the various indices. We present a number of conceptual criteria, in accordance with liberal-democratic tradition, as well as some methodological requirements to serve as a point of departure for our assessment. On the basis of our criteria, we find two indices, Polity and Freedom House, to be preferred on the whole to their rivals. We then, third, subject these two indices to an external assessment. We first compare the two indices between themselves, to test whether differences in country ratings point to systematic tendencies in regional or political respects (as it has been claimed). We then compare Polity and Freedom House with a reference score in a sample of countries they rate very differently. This test is based on a new compilation and classification of data in accordance with the criteria we suggest. |
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C&M
The Committee on Concepts and Methods
International Political Science Association (IPSA)
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Copyright (c) 2005 Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas.
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