Comparative Politics: Democratisation
Lecture 1: Introductory (27.01.2025)
What is democracy?
Direct democracy worked in Athens bc even though the city was big, the citizenship was very limited.
Otherwise it would never work. Never would've worked in current nation states. Additionally, having to
co-decide about everything becomes too long and annoying. That's why during the war Athens appointed
a person to decide about shit because they couldn't sit and debate.
Representative democracy was developing then in modern nation states.
Democracy is a rather broad term. Different ppl give different answers. Most pop is “liberty, freedom,
rights, liberty”. Their definition is also influenced by the regime they live in. Globally, 2 dimension 2
mentioned most often:
- Rule of law / liberalism (freedom of speech, constraints on the executive, rule of law)
- Rule by the people / democracy (free & fair elections, pluralist political parties, opposition)
→ But there's more possible dimensions !!
Monday: 10:30 - 12:15 (except for monday 03.03)
Thursday: 13:30 - 15:15
Final exam: 18.03.2025
- 70% of the grade
- 2 easy questions (60%; mostly the knowledge from the readings) and 6-10 multiple choice
questions (40%)
- Lecture + pp slides + readings
- Example exam on brightspace, but only essay q’s
Group assignment
- 30% of the grade
- Explain why this country is democratic or autocratic; country of ur choice
- 1st: define whether democratic or autocratic + present data/evidence
- 2nd: which structural, institutional & actor-based causes of democratization r present in
this country?
- Colonial & authoritarian past
- Economic development and/or resource
1
, - 3rd: which ones r the most important in explaining the current level of
democracy/autocracy in your country
- At least 10 *new* articles used for this, apart from the articles from class
- Journal of democracy; democratization; web of science
- Sign in by 14.02.2025
- Present it on an a3 poster – this part is not graded
- Also background note answering each question in max 1800 words – thats what u get
graded on
- Bullet points r fine
- Presented on march 11, 9:00 - 11:00 at world conference
Trends in democracy and authoritarianism → it varies, goes down and up (waves of democratisation)
but generally an upward movement. First wave was from 1820 till WW1 (long way, takes a long time,
involves few countries, representative demo starts, starts with curtailing the power of the king, elections
come at the end). But now we wouldn't say that 1820 was a democracy because only 5% could vote,
only a proto-democracy. First drop was the interbellum. Second wave was just after WW2 till 1960
(1943 - 1960 an increase of democracies, nr of countries shot up bc of decolonisation) (happens mostly in
old colonies, all over the world, get away with communism). Second reverse wave is 1960 till 1989 (cold
war starts taking more power, regimes are being drawn into 2 different authoritarian orbits, tanzania is a
good example). Third wave of demo is from 1989 till now (from the collapse of ussr but even earlier
than that, often 1974 with the collapse of dictatorship in eu like spain and portugal, after franco’s death
the king did not become franco 2.0 but said they're going to democracy which had an influence on latin
america too; the fall of the ussr just solidified these movements).
But what's wrong in this graph is that it's very black & white but since the end of the cold war it's quite
difficult, some regimes have a bit of both characteristics. Even though there’s a world trend, countries
may not necessarily follow it, individual regimes follow their own paths.
Only since the year 2000 were democracies in the majority. Now we're in a 3rd wave of backsliding
bc its 50/50 with autocracies and democracies.
So what? Does democracy matter?
Normative arguments for democracy / autocracy?
Empirical arguments for democracy / autocracy?
2
,We can do research on the consequences of democracy for different types of outcomes >> A lot of
research, a lot of it inconclusive, but:
Quite strong evidence that democracy leads to:
● Better human rights, less corruption, human development/health, quality of government, trade,
technological change and FDI
Pretty strong evidence for positive impact on social & economic policy outcomes too:
● Education, environment, growth, etc.
But: NO effects found on:
● Inequality (!)
● Inflation
● Public spending
Hybrid regimes are more common now. Democracy as a majority of political regimes worldwide is
relatively recent, and perhaps only a short moment in time (about 20 years ...)
Lecture 2. Measuring democracy
Many different visions of democracy
Liberal democracy; Deliberative democracy; Radical democracy; Egalitarian democracy; Social
democracy; Christian democracy; Illiberal democracy; Yellow democracy; Shapeless democracy
Each consists of multiple dimensions:
● Elections
● Rule of law
● Protection of rights
● Civil and political liberties
● Income equality
● Inclusionary citizenship
→ So measurement is often not ‘yes’ or ‘no’. You need to decide which dimensions to include and
how to weigh them.
Measuring democracy
● Classifying political regimes
3
, ● Regime definitions and conceptualizations
● Moving from concepts to measurements
● Datasets on democracy: how good are they?
● Data quality
● Patterns of regime change (or: why concepts and measures matter)
Classifying political regimes
States vs regimes vs governments
What are states? States are an entity that successfully claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of
force within a specified territory - weber
● guarantee a minimum level of security for citizens
● implement policies and deliver basic public services
● generate resources to maintain public services and state institutions
States = territory + institutions — stable over time
What are regimes? The rules governing the distribution of power and the relationships between the
agents of power - lindberg
Regimes = patterns & relationship of power — medium stable
What are governments? The leadership that runs the state - o’neill
Governments = actors – least stable (depending on regime type)
“The state is what one rules, regimes are how one rules, and government is the group of individuals
who rule.”
Democratic regimes ‘nested in’ states
Core Q: how democratic are states?
States:
● Independent states
○ Regimes
■ Electoral regimes
● Liberal democracy
● Electoral democracy
4
Lecture 1: Introductory (27.01.2025)
What is democracy?
Direct democracy worked in Athens bc even though the city was big, the citizenship was very limited.
Otherwise it would never work. Never would've worked in current nation states. Additionally, having to
co-decide about everything becomes too long and annoying. That's why during the war Athens appointed
a person to decide about shit because they couldn't sit and debate.
Representative democracy was developing then in modern nation states.
Democracy is a rather broad term. Different ppl give different answers. Most pop is “liberty, freedom,
rights, liberty”. Their definition is also influenced by the regime they live in. Globally, 2 dimension 2
mentioned most often:
- Rule of law / liberalism (freedom of speech, constraints on the executive, rule of law)
- Rule by the people / democracy (free & fair elections, pluralist political parties, opposition)
→ But there's more possible dimensions !!
Monday: 10:30 - 12:15 (except for monday 03.03)
Thursday: 13:30 - 15:15
Final exam: 18.03.2025
- 70% of the grade
- 2 easy questions (60%; mostly the knowledge from the readings) and 6-10 multiple choice
questions (40%)
- Lecture + pp slides + readings
- Example exam on brightspace, but only essay q’s
Group assignment
- 30% of the grade
- Explain why this country is democratic or autocratic; country of ur choice
- 1st: define whether democratic or autocratic + present data/evidence
- 2nd: which structural, institutional & actor-based causes of democratization r present in
this country?
- Colonial & authoritarian past
- Economic development and/or resource
1
, - 3rd: which ones r the most important in explaining the current level of
democracy/autocracy in your country
- At least 10 *new* articles used for this, apart from the articles from class
- Journal of democracy; democratization; web of science
- Sign in by 14.02.2025
- Present it on an a3 poster – this part is not graded
- Also background note answering each question in max 1800 words – thats what u get
graded on
- Bullet points r fine
- Presented on march 11, 9:00 - 11:00 at world conference
Trends in democracy and authoritarianism → it varies, goes down and up (waves of democratisation)
but generally an upward movement. First wave was from 1820 till WW1 (long way, takes a long time,
involves few countries, representative demo starts, starts with curtailing the power of the king, elections
come at the end). But now we wouldn't say that 1820 was a democracy because only 5% could vote,
only a proto-democracy. First drop was the interbellum. Second wave was just after WW2 till 1960
(1943 - 1960 an increase of democracies, nr of countries shot up bc of decolonisation) (happens mostly in
old colonies, all over the world, get away with communism). Second reverse wave is 1960 till 1989 (cold
war starts taking more power, regimes are being drawn into 2 different authoritarian orbits, tanzania is a
good example). Third wave of demo is from 1989 till now (from the collapse of ussr but even earlier
than that, often 1974 with the collapse of dictatorship in eu like spain and portugal, after franco’s death
the king did not become franco 2.0 but said they're going to democracy which had an influence on latin
america too; the fall of the ussr just solidified these movements).
But what's wrong in this graph is that it's very black & white but since the end of the cold war it's quite
difficult, some regimes have a bit of both characteristics. Even though there’s a world trend, countries
may not necessarily follow it, individual regimes follow their own paths.
Only since the year 2000 were democracies in the majority. Now we're in a 3rd wave of backsliding
bc its 50/50 with autocracies and democracies.
So what? Does democracy matter?
Normative arguments for democracy / autocracy?
Empirical arguments for democracy / autocracy?
2
,We can do research on the consequences of democracy for different types of outcomes >> A lot of
research, a lot of it inconclusive, but:
Quite strong evidence that democracy leads to:
● Better human rights, less corruption, human development/health, quality of government, trade,
technological change and FDI
Pretty strong evidence for positive impact on social & economic policy outcomes too:
● Education, environment, growth, etc.
But: NO effects found on:
● Inequality (!)
● Inflation
● Public spending
Hybrid regimes are more common now. Democracy as a majority of political regimes worldwide is
relatively recent, and perhaps only a short moment in time (about 20 years ...)
Lecture 2. Measuring democracy
Many different visions of democracy
Liberal democracy; Deliberative democracy; Radical democracy; Egalitarian democracy; Social
democracy; Christian democracy; Illiberal democracy; Yellow democracy; Shapeless democracy
Each consists of multiple dimensions:
● Elections
● Rule of law
● Protection of rights
● Civil and political liberties
● Income equality
● Inclusionary citizenship
→ So measurement is often not ‘yes’ or ‘no’. You need to decide which dimensions to include and
how to weigh them.
Measuring democracy
● Classifying political regimes
3
, ● Regime definitions and conceptualizations
● Moving from concepts to measurements
● Datasets on democracy: how good are they?
● Data quality
● Patterns of regime change (or: why concepts and measures matter)
Classifying political regimes
States vs regimes vs governments
What are states? States are an entity that successfully claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of
force within a specified territory - weber
● guarantee a minimum level of security for citizens
● implement policies and deliver basic public services
● generate resources to maintain public services and state institutions
States = territory + institutions — stable over time
What are regimes? The rules governing the distribution of power and the relationships between the
agents of power - lindberg
Regimes = patterns & relationship of power — medium stable
What are governments? The leadership that runs the state - o’neill
Governments = actors – least stable (depending on regime type)
“The state is what one rules, regimes are how one rules, and government is the group of individuals
who rule.”
Democratic regimes ‘nested in’ states
Core Q: how democratic are states?
States:
● Independent states
○ Regimes
■ Electoral regimes
● Liberal democracy
● Electoral democracy
4
