Quality of Democracy. Democracy Barometer for Established Democracies

1
Quality of Democracy.Democracy Barometer for
Established Democracies

• Marc Bühlmann, Wolfgang Merkel, Bernhard Weßels
• NCCR Democracy Project 14
• Bratislava 7/3/2008

2
Structure of the Project 7-step Analysis

• 1st step Fundamental principles of democracy
• 2nd step Root Concept of Democracy
• 3rd step From partial regimes to functions
• 4th step From functions to components
• 5th step From components to indicators
• 6th step Measuring the quality of democracy
• 7th step Research beyond measurement

3
1st Step The Principles of Democracy

• Equality (political)
• Freedom (individual)
• Control (institutional)

4
2nd Step Root Concept The concept of embedded
democracy
5
Internal Embeddedness

• Mutual embeddedness
• Normative and functional interdependence
• Normative and functional independence

6
3rd Step From Partial Regimes to Functions
7
4th Step From Partial Regimes and its Functions
to Components

• 1. Electoral regime representation,
  accountability
• Universal active suffrage
• Universal passive suffrage
• Free and fair elections
• 2. Political-rights regime participation,
  responsiveness
• Freedom of opinion
• Freedom to associate and to form coalitions
• Equal political rights to participate

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4th Step (contd)

• 3. Civil-rights regime freedom
• Individual rights
• Equality before the law
• Equal access to courts
• 4. Horizontal-accountability regime constraint
  of executive autonomy
• Checks and balances
• Independence of the judiciary
• Rule of law (binding rules for the executive)
• 5. Effective power to govern government autonomy
• National territorial dimension
• National functional dimension
• Global dimension

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5th Step From Components to Indicators
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6th Step Measurement first option
structural Evaluation cobwebs fictional
examples for three cases
Performance of partial regimes
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2. Option functional model The Dimensions of
Democracy Fictional Example
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Political Participation in Slovak Republic
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The Status and Development of Political
Participation

• Equality of electoral participation and the
  equality of qualified participation are very high
• Effective use of participation (electoral and
  non-institutionalized) is poor
• Lack of access to information has increased (but
  still below OECD-average)
• Number and scopes of elections have increased
• ? Access to information and participation
  instruments have to be strengthened

14
Political Participation in Slovak Republic(30
OECD Countries)
Year Rank Value OECD Average
1990 13 32.3 31.3
1995 8 33.9 30.8
2000 6 38.0 32.5
2007 3 42.6 32.9
Source Democracy Barometer, preliminary results.
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Slovak Republic and Germany compared (1995 / 2005)
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Slovak Republic and Germany compared (1995)
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Slovak Republic and Germany compared (2005)
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Representation in Slovak Republic
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The Status and Development of Representation

• No constraints for active suffrage
• Constraints for passive suffrage
• Not very equal weight of votes (but increasing
  equality)
• Unequal chances for representation (especially
  considering gender)
• ? Chances for representation should be made more
  equal

20
Representation in Slovak Republic(21 OECD
Countries)
Year Rank Value OECD Average
1993 17 40.3 54.7
1998 19 40.5 58.3
2003 12 60.7 65.2
Source Democracy Barometer, preliminary results.
21
Overall Performance Cross-regime /
Cross-function Means
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7th Step Research Perspectives Beyond Measurement

• Overarching question
• What is the (causal) link between institutional
  designs and quality of democracy?
• Which institutional design shows the highest
  quality of democracy?
• Is the quality of democracy a function of the
  institutional design?
• Which specific interdependencies in the quality
  of democracy can be observed between the partial
  regimes?
• Changes of the democratic quality over time
  (retrospectively) different developments? Which
  components/functions particularly improved/
  worsened?
• Can the changes of democratic quality be
  explained by changes of the institutional
  designs?