Episode March 9, 2026 24 min 6s

Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics (Democratic Transition and Consolidation)

From Book Shelter Book Shelter

Explores the complexities of defining and measuring democracy, particularly focusing on electoral democracy. It examines various existing indices of democracy, such as the Electoral Democracy Index (EDI) and Freedom House, scrutinizing their conceptual attributes, measurement scales, and aggregation rules. The text emphasizes the importance of robust methodologies for data production and validation, advocating for a clearer link between theoretical understandings of democracy and empirical measurement. Furthermore, it highlights the role of academics in bridging the gap between scholarly research and political practice by generating reliable data and ensuring its responsible use in democracy promotion efforts, particularly within the context of international election observation missions, like those of the Organization of American States (OAS).

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