Exam 4: Democracy and Dictatorship: Conceptualization and Measurement

A minimalist conceptualization of democracy classifies a country as being democratic if it

Imagine that the true value of economic inequality in country X is 4, on a scale from 1 to 10. Say four people code the level of economic inequality in country X using two different measures of inequality, A and B. Measure A yields values of 2, 3, 5, and 6. Measure B yields values 6, 6, 7, and 6. Is Measure A or Measure B a more reliable measure of democracy in country X?

The economic growth rate in Bangladesh in 2000 was 3.7%. What kind of measure is this?

When George W. Bush left office and Barack Obama became president, there was a change in ______.

Imagine that a scholar wants to develop a measure of preelectoral coordination among parties in democracies. If she thinks about the level of preelectoral coordination between any two parties as going from running independently at one extreme to merging into a single party at the other extreme, then is she conceptualizing preelectoral coordination in terms of a dichotomy or a continuum?

Imagine that a scholar wants to develop a measure of preelectoral coordination among parties in democracies. If she decides that she is most interested in whether two parties coordinate their electoral strategies at all versus both competing independently in an election, then is she conceptualizing preelectoral coordination in terms of a dichotomy or a continuum?

Imagine that the true value of democracy in country X is 5. Say four people code the level of democracy in country X using two different measures of democracy, A and B. Measure A yields values of 3, 4, 6, and 7. Measure B yields values 6, 6, 7, and 6. Is Measure A or Measure B a more valid measure of democracy in country X?

The Democracy-Dictatorship (DD) measure of democracy classifies a country as a democracy if (a) the chief executive is elected, (b) the legislature is elected, (c) more than one party competes, and (d) there has been an alternation in power. The Freedom House measure classifies a country's level of "freedom" based on many criteria, including whether the government is accountable, the level of corruption, if minorities are autonomous, if people are treated equally under the law, if they have equality of opportunity, and so on. Say you had the following hypothesis: Governments are less corrupt in democracies than in non-democracies. -If you want your hypothesis to be falsifiable, which measure of democracy should you use?

A government is an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory.

A ______ is an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory and a ______ is the set of people who run the state or have the authority to act on behalf of a state.

A "reliable" measure is one that

The Democracy-Dictatorship (DD) measure of democracy classifies a country as a democracy if (a) the chief executive is elected, (b) the legislature is elected, (c) more than one party competes, and (d) there has been an alternation in power. The Freedom House measure classifies a country's level of "freedom" based on many criteria, including whether the government is accountable, the level of corruption, if minorities are autonomous, if people are treated equally under the law, if they have equality of opportunity, and so on. Say you had the following hypothesis: Governments are less corrupt in democracies than in non-democracies. -Say you had the following hypothesis: Citizens have greater equality of opportunity in democracies than in non-democracies. If you want your hypothesis to be falsifiable, which measure of democracy should you use?

Aristotle believed that democracy was a corrupt form of government.

Why did Dahl talk about polyarchies rather than democracies?

In ancient times, demokratia meant

Democracy-Dictatorship classifies countries as democracies or dictatorships. Their measure of democracy is a(n):

When we talk about dictatorships and democracies, we are categorizing ______.

The Democracy-Dictatorship (DD) measure of democracy classifies a country as a democracy if (a) the chief executive is elected, (b) the legislature is elected, (c) more than one party competes, and (d) there has been an alternation in power. The Freedom House measure classifies a country's level of "freedom" based on many criteria, including whether the government is accountable, the level of corruption, if minorities are autonomous, if people are treated equally under the law, if they have equality of opportunity, and so on. Say you had the following hypothesis: Governments are less corrupt in democracies than in non-democracies. -Say you had the following hypothesis: Democracies are more likely than dictatorships to join international organizations. If you want your hypothesis to be falsifiable, which measure of democracy should you use?