Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics
Although democracy is a widely held value, concrete measurement of it is elusive. Gerardo L. Munck’s constructive assessment of the methods used to measure democracies promises to bring order to the debate in academia and in practice.

Drawing on his years of academic research on democracy and measurement and his practical experience evaluating democratic practices for the United Nations and the Organization of American States, Munck's discussion bridges the theories of academia with practical applications. In proposing a more open and collaborative relationship between theory and action, he makes the case for reassessing how democracy is measured and encourages fundamental changes in methodology. Munck’s field-tested framework for quantifying and qualifying democracy is built around two instruments he developed: the UN Development Programme’s Electoral Democracy Index and a case-by-case election monitoring tool used by the OAS.

Measuring Democracy offers specific, real-world lessons that scholars and practitioners can use to improve the quality and utility of data about democracy.

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Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics
Although democracy is a widely held value, concrete measurement of it is elusive. Gerardo L. Munck’s constructive assessment of the methods used to measure democracies promises to bring order to the debate in academia and in practice.

Drawing on his years of academic research on democracy and measurement and his practical experience evaluating democratic practices for the United Nations and the Organization of American States, Munck's discussion bridges the theories of academia with practical applications. In proposing a more open and collaborative relationship between theory and action, he makes the case for reassessing how democracy is measured and encourages fundamental changes in methodology. Munck’s field-tested framework for quantifying and qualifying democracy is built around two instruments he developed: the UN Development Programme’s Electoral Democracy Index and a case-by-case election monitoring tool used by the OAS.

Measuring Democracy offers specific, real-world lessons that scholars and practitioners can use to improve the quality and utility of data about democracy.

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Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics

Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics

by Gerardo L. Munck
Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics

Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics

by Gerardo L. Munck

Overview

Although democracy is a widely held value, concrete measurement of it is elusive. Gerardo L. Munck’s constructive assessment of the methods used to measure democracies promises to bring order to the debate in academia and in practice.

Drawing on his years of academic research on democracy and measurement and his practical experience evaluating democratic practices for the United Nations and the Organization of American States, Munck's discussion bridges the theories of academia with practical applications. In proposing a more open and collaborative relationship between theory and action, he makes the case for reassessing how democracy is measured and encourages fundamental changes in methodology. Munck’s field-tested framework for quantifying and qualifying democracy is built around two instruments he developed: the UN Development Programme’s Electoral Democracy Index and a case-by-case election monitoring tool used by the OAS.

Measuring Democracy offers specific, real-world lessons that scholars and practitioners can use to improve the quality and utility of data about democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780801890932
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 04/15/2009
Series: Democratic Transition and Consolidation
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 200
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.80(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Gerardo L. Munck is a professor in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He consults regularly on democracy evaluation for international and nongovernmental organizations, including the United Nations and the Organization of American States. Munck is the coauthor of Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
Preface
1. Bringing Knowledge to Bear on Politics: The Uses and Misuses of Data in Democracy Promotion
2. Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: An Evaluation of Alternative Indices
3. Drawing Boundaries: The Crafting of Intermediate Regime Categories
4. Producing and Validating Political Data: The Case of the Electoral Democracy Index
5. Assessing Elections: A Methodology for Election Observation Missions
6. Revisiting Concepts: Democracy and Other Political Values
7. Developing Measures: Beyond Electoral Democracy
Notes
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

Guillermo O'Donnell

This is an important and timely contribution. The increasing academic and policy interest in democracy and democratization demands improved analytical and empirical criteria. This book is a significant contribution to this task, for which Munck is superbly qualified.

— Guillermo O'Donnell, coauthor of Transitions from Authoritarian Rule

Guillermo O’Donnell

"This is an important and timely contribution. The increasing academic and policy interest in democracy and democratization demands improved analytical and empirical criteria. This book is a significant contribution to this task, for which Munck is superbly qualified."

Dante Caputo

Munck’s book is a laudable effort to build bridges between the world of democratic theory and related methodologies and the practical world of politics and government, which in the past have remained isolated from each other. Data and measurements produced by scholars do have an impact outside the academic world, and, as Munck compellingly argues, scholars have a social responsibility to produce useful knowledge.

James Mahoney

Gerardo Munck has thought long and hard about the measurement of democracy. With this brilliant book, he delivers the fruits of that careful thinking in a way that will stimulate methodologists, improve the results of scholarly analyses of democracy, and provide concrete tools for election observers in the field. This book goes further than any other that I know toward bringing conceptual and measurement validity into the study of democracy.

From the Publisher

Munck’s book is a laudable effort to build bridges between the world of democratic theory and related methodologies and the practical world of politics and government, which in the past have remained isolated from each other. Data and measurements produced by scholars do have an impact outside the academic world, and, as Munck compellingly argues, scholars have a social responsibility to produce useful knowledge.
—Dante Caputo, former foreign minister of Argentina and Secretary for Political Affairs of the Organization of American States

This is an important and timely contribution. The increasing academic and policy interest in democracy and democratization demands improved analytical and empirical criteria. This book is a significant contribution to this task, for which Munck is superbly qualified.
—Guillermo O’Donnell, coauthor of Transitions from Authoritarian Rule

Gerardo Munck has thought long and hard about the measurement of democracy. With this brilliant book, he delivers the fruits of that careful thinking in a way that will stimulate methodologists, improve the results of scholarly analyses of democracy, and provide concrete tools for election observers in the field. This book goes further than any other that I know toward bringing conceptual and measurement validity into the study of democracy.
—James Mahoney, author of The Legacies of Liberalism

Guillermo O’Donnell

This is an important and timely contribution. The increasing academic and policy interest in democracy and democratization demands improved analytical and empirical criteria. This book is a significant contribution to this task, for which Munck is superbly qualified.

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