 |
Satisfaction with Democracy: Do Institutions Matter?
| |
| | Unformatted Document Text:
In our analyses, we will designate the systems with a majoritarian
constitutional design as the category of reference.
Old and new democracies
We argued that citizens will only gradually learn to distinguish between the
performance of the incumbent government and the performance of the democratic regime. In our analyses we will therefore introduce a rough control for the age of the democratic systems. We distinguish between old, established democracies and new, recent democracies.
Most of our cases can easily be classified according to this scheme. Many are
classified as old democracies with at least several decades of free and fair elections and other civil liberties. Spain and Portugal, which both regained democracy only in the 1970s, are therefore regarded as “old” democracies. Other cases are among the newer democracies established after the breakdown of the Soviet empire, after a period of dictatorship (Philippines) or after a period of military rule (Brazil). Mexico - for many decades dominated by one single party - was until 2000 rated lower than “2” on the Freedom House index
6
- meaning that it was “partly free” at the best. The
same applies to Taiwan until the late 1990s (“partly free” according to the Freedom House index), when the newly formed Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese New Party gradually increased their impact on Taiwan politics. For these reasons, we have classified Mexico and Taiwan under the “new democracies” as well. Finally, Hong Kong, which did not have free elections before 1984 and was returned to China in 1997, can be regarded as a class on its own, but is classified here as a new democracy. In our analyses, we will treat the old democracies as the reference category.
6
Refer to: http://www.freedomhouse.org (accessed June 1, 2006).
9
|
| | Authors: Thomassen, Jacques. and Aarts, Kees. |
|
| |
|
|
In our analyses, we will designate the systems with a majoritarian
constitutional design as the category of reference.
Old and new democracies
We argued that citizens will only gradually learn to distinguish between the
performance of the incumbent government and the performance of the democratic
regime. In our analyses we will therefore introduce a rough control for the age of the
democratic systems. We distinguish between old, established democracies and new,
recent democracies.
Most of our cases can easily be classified according to this scheme. Many are
classified as old democracies with at least several decades of free and fair elections
and other civil liberties. Spain and Portugal, which both regained democracy only in
the 1970s, are therefore regarded as “old” democracies. Other cases are among the
newer democracies established after the breakdown of the Soviet empire, after a
period of dictatorship (Philippines) or after a period of military rule (Brazil). Mexico -
for many decades dominated by one single party - was until 2000 rated lower than
“2” on the Freedom House index
- meaning that it was “partly free” at the best. The
same applies to Taiwan until the late 1990s (“partly free” according to the Freedom
House index), when the newly formed Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese
New Party gradually increased their impact on Taiwan politics. For these reasons, we
have classified Mexico and Taiwan under the “new democracies” as well. Finally,
Hong Kong, which did not have free elections before 1984 and was returned to China
in 1997, can be regarded as a class on its own, but is classified here as a new
democracy. In our analyses, we will treat the old democracies as the reference
category.
6
Refer to: http://www.freedomhouse.org (accessed June 1, 2006).
9
|
|
 Convention | | All Academic Convention makes running your annual conference simple and cost effective. It is your online solution for abstract management, peer review, and scheduling for your annual meeting or convention. | | Submission - Custom fields, multiple submission types, tracks, audio visual, multiple upload formats, automatic conversion to pdf. | | Review - Peer Review, Bulk reviewer assignment, bulk emails, ranking, z-score statistics, and multiple worksheets! | | Reports - Many standard and custom reports generated while you wait. Print programs with participant indexes, event grids, and more! | | Scheduling - Flexible and convenient grid scheduling within rooms and buildings. Conflict checking and advanced filtering. | | Communication - Bulk email tools to help your administrators send reminders and responses. Use form letters, a message center, and much more! | | Management - Search tools, duplicate people management, editing tools, submission transfers, many tools to manage a variety of conference management headaches! | | Click here for more information. |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
