Assessing the Quality of Democracy

by Diamond, Larry; Morlino, Leonardo

• ISBN13: 9780801882876
• ISBN10: 0801882877
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-10-10
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

The latest volume in this popular series focuses on the best ways to evaluate and improve the quality of new democratic regimes. The essays in part one elaborate and refine several themes of democratic quality: the rule of law, accountability, freedom, equality, and responsiveness. The second part features six comparative cases, each of which applies these thematic elements to two neighboring countries: Brazil and Chile, South Africa and Ghana, Italy and Spain, Romania and Poland, India and Bangladesh, and Taiwan and Korea. Contributors: David Beetham, University of Leeds; Yun-han Chu, National Taiwan University; Larry Diamond, Hoover Institution; Sumit Ganguly, University of Texas--Austin; E. Gyimah-Boadi, Center for Democratic Development, Ghana; Frances Hagopian, University of Notre Dame; Robert Mattes, University of Cape Town; Leonardo Morlino, University of Florence; Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Romanian Academic Society; Guillermo O'Donnell, University of Notre Dame; Marc F. Plattner, International Forum for Democratic Studies; G. Bingham Powell, Jr., University of Rochester; Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Brown University; Philippe C. Schmitter, European University Institute, Florence; Doh Chull Shin, University of Missouri at Columbia.

Author Biography

Larry Diamond is coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, codirector of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Leonardo Morlino is a professor of political science at the University of Florence and director of the Research Centre on Southern Europe and author of Democrazie e Democratizzazioni.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	ix
Larry Diamond
Leonardo Morlino
I. Dimensions of Democratic Quality
Why the Rule of Law Matters	3	(15)
Guillermo O'Donnell
The Ambiguous Virtues of Accountability	18	(14)
Philippe C. Schmitter
Freedom as the Foundation	32	(15)
David Beetham
Addressing Inequality	47	(15)
Dietrich Rueschemeyer
The Chain of Responsiveness	62	(15)
G. Bingham Powell, Jr.
A Skeptical Perspective	77	(8)
Marc F. Plattner
II. Comparative Case Studies
Italy and Spain	85	(38)
Rafael Lopez-Pintor
Leonardo Morlino
Chile and Brazil	123	(40)
Frances Hagopian
Bangladesh and India	163	(25)
Sumit Ganguly
South Korea and Taiwan	188	(25)
Yun-han Chu
Doh Chull Shin
Poland and Romania	213	(25)
Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
Ghana and South Africa	238	(37)
Robert Mattes
E. Gyimah-Boadi
Index	275