How Do We Measure Democracy?
Democracy, literally “rule by the people,” is one of the most enduring political ideas in history. It has fueled the struggles of thinkers and leaders from Pericles in ancient Athens to Vaclav Havel in modern-day Czechoslovakia. And while democracy is no guarantee of freedoms or prosperity, it has often been a key ingredient in a country’s most resilient societies.
In the broadest sense, the term describes a political system in which all citizens are equal participants in decision-making and have power to overturn the laws they don’t like. Democracy takes its name from the Greek words demos (“people”) and kratos (“rule”). It was originally used in the 5th century bce to describe the political systems of certain Greek city-states, including Athens.
Despite its etymological roots, democracy is a rather broad concept with many competing interpretations. Different approaches have been developed to measure democracy, from electoral to civil society to deliberative. While they often differ in their underlying conceptions of democracy, all these different approaches have something in common: they all seek to capture a version of it.
These measures use a wide range of methodologies to assess the state of democracy in different countries and years. Some rely on the evaluations of country experts who review academic research and news reports. Others, such as the Boix-Miller-Rosato democracy score, use their own researchers to evaluate country-specific characteristics using surveys of regular citizens. The different methods have different strengths and weaknesses, but they all provide useful tools to understand the past spread, current state, and future prospects of democracy in the world.
While all these approaches are based on the idea that democracy is about citizens’ participation in decisions, how they go about evaluating whether or not a country is democratic varies greatly. For example, some measures are based on the number of voters who participate in elections, while others focus on how many people take part in public debate and in civic activities. Some even go as far as to include a component that measures the degree to which citizens are willing to compromise on their principles, such as the Lexical Index or the Democratic Convergence Score.
The result is that there is no single ‘best’ approach to measuring democracy. The best approach depends on the question that a researcher is asking and the data available for the country or year in question. This is a strength of the various measures and it also means that they are complementary, providing different perspectives on democracy in the world today.
The biggest challenge to the survival of democracy is that many people feel disengaged from politics and their government. A healthy democracy requires active citizen participation that is both deep and sustaining, and this is particularly true of younger generations. Generation Z, which is now entering the workforce and voting age, has grown up during a time of political dysfunction, culture wars, and existential threats to liberal values. This disengagement can easily turn into cynicism and disaffection that threatens the core value of democracy: the people’s will.
Democracy, literally “rule by the people,” is one of the most enduring political ideas in history. It has fueled the struggles of thinkers and leaders from Pericles in ancient Athens to Vaclav Havel in modern-day Czechoslovakia. And while democracy is no guarantee of freedoms or prosperity, it has often been a key ingredient in a country’s most resilient societies. In the broadest sense, the term describes a political system in which all citizens are equal participants in decision-making and have power to overturn the laws they don’t like. Democracy takes its name from the Greek words demos (“people”) and kratos (“rule”). It was originally used in the 5th century bce to describe the political systems of certain Greek city-states, including Athens. Despite its etymological roots, democracy is a rather broad concept with many competing interpretations. Different approaches have been developed to measure democracy, from electoral to civil society to deliberative. While they often differ in their underlying conceptions of democracy, all these different approaches have something in common: they all seek to capture a version of it. These measures use a wide range of methodologies to assess the state of democracy in different countries and years. Some rely on the evaluations of country experts who review academic research and news reports. Others, such as the Boix-Miller-Rosato democracy score, use their own researchers to evaluate country-specific characteristics using surveys of regular citizens. The different methods have different strengths and weaknesses, but they all provide useful tools to understand the past spread, current state, and future prospects of democracy in the world. While all these approaches are based on the idea that democracy is about citizens’ participation in decisions, how they go about evaluating whether or not a country is democratic varies greatly. For example, some measures are based on the number of voters who participate in elections, while others focus on how many people take part in public debate and in civic activities. Some even go as far as to include a component that measures the degree to which citizens are willing to compromise on their principles, such as the Lexical Index or the Democratic Convergence Score. The result is that there is no single ‘best’ approach to measuring democracy. The best approach depends on the question that a researcher is asking and the data available for the country or year in question. This is a strength of the various measures and it also means that they are complementary, providing different perspectives on democracy in the world today. The biggest challenge to the survival of democracy is that many people feel disengaged from politics and their government. A healthy democracy requires active citizen participation that is both deep and sustaining, and this is particularly true of younger generations. Generation Z, which is now entering the workforce and voting age, has grown up during a time of political dysfunction, culture wars, and existential threats to liberal values. This disengagement can easily turn into cynicism and disaffection that threatens the core value of democracy: the people’s will.