Political regimes have always evolved. They break down, liberalise incrementally, or reshape in other, often unexpected ways. But the mood of democracy pundits as to where we are headed has deteriorated since the optimism of the 1990s. Promises such as the one made by the Arab spring never materialised. Democratic decline even in member states of the European Union has prompted despair. And in January 2021, the world was dumbstruck by the storm on the US Capitol. Does this mean that democracy is doomed? The answer to this question is not trivial, as it is hard to validly and reliably measure the state of democracy. Political scientists assess regime change for comparative purposes with expert-coded indicators, facilitating the comparison of regimes across time and space. This seminar will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the state-of-the-art in democracy measurement and enable them to provide a justified appraisal on the state of democracy around the globe.
We will first review basic principles of measurement in the social sciences. These principles will allow us to assess extant approaches at measuring state and change of political regimes. A closer look at regime change in Latin America will help us link index numbers with real-world developments. At the end of the seminar, students will be familiar with interpreting aggregate indices and shall be able to answer whether democracy is indeed in decline, or whether there is hope for the rule by many.
Requirements:
In order to pass the seminar, students are required to prepare the weekly reading assignments, write essays, give a group presentation, and write a term paper on a topic related to the seminar.
Recommended reading:
Goertz, G. (2020). Social science concepts and measurement: New and completely revised edition. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691205489/social-science-concepts-and-measurement
Hellmeier, S., Cole, R., Grahn, S., Kolvani, P., Lachapelle, J., Lührmann, A., ... & Lindberg, S. I. (2021). State of the world 2020: Autocratization turns viral. Democratization, online first. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2021.1922390
Munck, G. L., & Verkuilen, J. (2002). Conceptualizing and measuring democracy: Evaluating alternative indices. Comparative Political Studies, 35(1), 5-34. https://doi.org/10.1177/001041400203500101
Skaaning, S.-E. (2020). Waves of autocratization and democratization: A critical note on conceptualization and measurement. Democratization, 27(8), 1533-1542. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2020.1799194
- Lehrende/r: Sebastian Ziaja