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A Continuous Schumpeterian Conception of Democracy
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A Continuous Schumpeterian Conception of Democracy
James Raymond Vreeland
Yale University
August 21, 2003
Comments Appreciated.
Abstract
Political scientists often require a continuous conception of democracy to test hypotheses about the effects of political regime. Yet, the so-called continuous measures we use in large-n studies are either highly subjective (e.g., Freedom House), or not really continuous (as Gleditsch and Ward 1997 argue about Polity). The first step in developing a continuous measure of democracy is to answer the question: What does it mean to be more or less democratic? Przeworski et al. (2000) follow a minimalist, Schumpeterian conception of democracy, where regimes are classified as to whether key government offices are filled through contested elections. Their dichotomous measure has clear meaning. The problem for some is that this classification does not appeal to their intuitive sense that some countries are more democratic than others. In this paper, I suggest a continuous conception of democracy that is consistent with the minimalist conception offered by Schumpeter (1942). I define democracy as the probability that key government offices are filled through contested elections. While such probability cannot be directly observed, I use the Przeworski et al. data to estimate probabilities and apply the new conception to the Hegre et al. (2001) study of the effect of political regime on the incidence of civil war. Paper prepared for delivery at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, August 28-31, 2003. Copyright by the American Political Science Association. Previously presented at the Annual Meeting of the Public Choice Society and Economic Science Association, Nashville, Tennessee, March 21-23, 2003.
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| | Authors: Vreeland, James. |
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A Continuous Schumpeterian Conception of Democracy
James Raymond Vreeland
Yale University
August 21, 2003
Comments Appreciated.
Abstract
Political scientists often require a continuous conception of democracy to test hypotheses
about the effects of political regime. Yet, the so-called continuous measures we use in
large-n studies are either highly subjective (e.g., Freedom House), or not really
continuous (as Gleditsch and Ward 1997 argue about Polity). The first step in developing
a continuous measure of democracy is to answer the question: What does it mean to be
more or less democratic? Przeworski et al. (2000) follow a minimalist, Schumpeterian
conception of democracy, where regimes are classified as to whether key government
offices are filled through contested elections. Their dichotomous measure has clear
meaning. The problem for some is that this classification does not appeal to their intuitive
sense that some countries are more democratic than others. In this paper, I suggest a
continuous conception of democracy that is consistent with the minimalist conception
offered by Schumpeter (1942). I define democracy as the probability that key
government offices are filled through contested elections. While such probability cannot
be directly observed, I use the Przeworski et al. data to estimate probabilities and apply
the new conception to the Hegre et al. (2001) study of the effect of political regime on the
incidence of civil war.
Paper prepared for delivery at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Political
Science Association, Philadelphia, August 28-31, 2003. Copyright by the American
Political Science Association.
Previously presented at the Annual Meeting of the Public Choice Society and Economic
Science Association, Nashville, Tennessee, March 21-23, 2003.
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