Terminology
A form of regime associated with "rule by the people" that signifies rights and liberties for citizens, including political rights to participate in elections and civil liberties such as freedom of speech.
What is democracy?
Weak states will have hybrid regimes because they don't have enough resources to consolidate power into a fully authoritarian or fully democratic regime.
What is structuralist lens?
Two or more countries are very similar but they have different outcomes on the dependent variable.
What is Most Similar Systems design?
Type of critique: A study has significant problems with measurement validity. The operationalization of variables is not measuring the concept accurately.
What is a methodological critique?
States that cannot control territory, eliminate internal rivals, deliver public goods, and manage the economy will not be able to sustain democracy.
What is the state capacity model?
In its pure form, an electoral system in which voters choose a preferred party and seats are allocated to parties according to the percentage of the vote the party wins
What is proportional representation?
Inglehart and Norris argue that countries with illiberal values will not be able to democratize.
What is culturalist lens?
A qualitative method that traces changes over time in one case.
What is within-case comparison?
The term to describe the quality that a given theory, hypothesis, or finding has of being applicable to a wide number of cases.
What is generalizability?
Economic development, industrialization, education, and urbanization cause changes like democratization.
What is modernization theory?
Compelling behavior by threatening harm
What is coercion?
A country de-democratizes because a small group of powerful actors have the motive and opportunity to change the constitution to remove accountability and reduce civil liberties.
This indicator measures level of democracy in regimes in terms of political rights and civil liberties.
What is Freedom House score?
Type of critique that says a model that is not testable because it is using circular logic.
What is a theoretical critique?
After a natural disaster, international aid agencies may use their leverage to pressure a country to democratize in order to receive badly-needed assistance.
What is external actor model of regime change?
A method of co-optation whereby authoritarian systems create or sanction a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restrict those not set up or approved by the state
What is corporatism?
Countries with nuclear weapons are less susceptible to outside influence by external actors.
What is rationalist lens?
A set of interrelated guesses about the processes that led to outcomes in the real world.
What is a causal model?
Type of critique: The internal elites model only accurately predicts about 15-30% of the cases of elite-led democratization. The rest were due to elite mistakes.
What is empirical critique?
A causal model that focuses on the percentage of people in a society who value equality, liberty, or hierarchy. This model predicts that societies that value equality and liberty are more compatible with democratic regimes than those that do not.
What is cultural values model of regime change?
When a dictator relies on repression to stay in power, but this repression creates incentives for everyone to falsify their preferences so that the dictator never knows his true level of societal support
What is dictator's dilemma?
A country with a high level of civic engagement will also have a high level of social trust. That generalized social trust will make the country more likely to democratize.
What is culturalist lens?
An indicator that measures level of democracy in regimes in terms of checks on executive power, how open the selection process is for choosing executives, and the way political actors compete for power in the regime.
What is Polity?
Type of critique: Glasius (2018) argues that authoritarianism needs a stronger conceptual definition. If we don't know what it is, then we won't be able to properly study it.
What is theoretical critique?
A mode of regime transition when elites agree upon a multilateral compromise among themselves to bring about the transition; requires elite-dominance in transition and a perceived balance of power between government and opposition.
What is pacting OR internal elites model?