Preview

pols

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
5235 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
pols
An Overview
Larry Jay Diamond, Leonardo Morlino

Journal of Democracy, Volume 15, Number 4, October 2004, pp. 20-31
(Article)
Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.1353/jod.2004.0060

For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jod/summary/v015/15.4diamond.html Access provided by Lake Forest College (27 Jun 2013 13:34 GMT)

The Quality of Democracy

AN OVERVIEW
Larry Diamond and Leonardo Morlino

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 professor of political science at the University of Florence and director of the Research Centre on Southern Europe. His books include Democrazie e Democratizzazioni (2003).

As democracy has spread to a majority of the world’s states over the past three decades, many scholars, politicians, activists, and aid administrators have gone from asking why transitions happen to asking what the new regimes are like. How can we evaluate—and if need be, help to improve—their quality (or any regime’s quality) both as governments and as democratic governments? This stream of theory, methodological innovation, and empirical research flows from the notions that: 1) deepening democracy is a moral good, maybe even an imperative; 2) reforms to improve democratic quality are essential if democracy is to achieve the broad and durable legitimacy that marks consolidation; and 3) longestablished democracies must also reform if they are to solve their own gathering problems of public dissatisfaction and even disillusionment.
There is plainly room for controversy here. Who, after all, is to say just what makes a “good” or “high-quality” democracy? Is a universal conception of democratic quality even possible? How can efforts to think about democratic quality avoid becoming paternalistic exercises in which the older democracies take

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Janda, Kenneth. Berry, Jeffrey. Goldman, Jerry (2008). The Challenge of Democracy (9th ed.). Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.…

    • 1942 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Filibusters Research Paper

    • 1806 Words
    • 8 Pages

    * Kenneth, Janda, Jeffery M. Berry, and Goldman Jerry, The Challenge of Democracy, 10th edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2009.…

    • 1806 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Chapter 33 APWH Notes

    • 1634 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The great appeal of democracy is that it allows for the peaceful resolution of differences between a country’s social, cultural and regional groups. Democratic institutions gained ground in Eastern Europe and in Russia during the last decade. Since 1991, democracy has become the norm in Latin America.…

    • 1634 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ap Comparative Government

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Since the beginning of America’s democratic success in the late eighteenth century, countries around the globe have strived to mimic a form of government that reflects the freedom to be politically competitive. The overall successes of these democratic countries are what draw global attention. Yet even those countries who reflect the most democratic political atmospheres fail to fully encompass a legitimate liberal democracy due to such a reality being impossible. Though there is no true liberal democracy, there are still those countries within the world today that reflect various aspects of a growing democracy. Such democratic growth is subject to the…

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Papaer

    • 13115 Words
    • 53 Pages

    ethnic fractionalization is associated with a ten basis point increase. To provide a scale for these…

    • 13115 Words
    • 53 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Linz, Juan J. and Alfred Stepan. (1996). Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.…

    • 11214 Words
    • 45 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Patterson, T. E. (2009). The American Democracy (9th ed.). New York, NY: The McGraw Hill Comanies.…

    • 1397 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pols 1

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As individuals the way in which the beliefs and values of our political orientation is acquired is an important part of how our government is. The viewing of this political socialization in the people of the U.S. electorate is particularly important. If the individuals that are involved have more of a tendency due to their political socialization towards their own preferences and ideals with little regard to public opinion or with the mind to pray off the knowledge that public opinion is vulnerable to media and public polling, then the Madisonian Model of government is being detracted from. Adversely, if the individuals comprised of this body's political socializations have them more aware of public opinion and of the downfalls and sometimes misrepresentations of the media and public polling, then the Madisonian Model of government is being added to and strengthened. As we remember from Mike's previous lectures, this form of government works off of the ideas of the separation of powers, checks and balances and presidents restricting themselves to the powers allotted them in the Constitution.…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Persuasive Speech Outline

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Lynn-Jones, S. M. (1998) Why the United States should spread democracy. Discussion paper, Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, MA.…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    POLS

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Statism is the idea that the rights of the nation are supreme over the rights of the __________.…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women in Congress

    • 1276 Words
    • 6 Pages

    • Janda, Kenneth, Jeffrey M. Berry, and Jerry Goldman. The Challenge of Democracy: Government in a Global World. 10th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2008. Print.…

    • 1276 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Politic

    • 8535 Words
    • 35 Pages

    Through which pathway have Native American activists succeeded in their attempts to recover some of the debt owned them by the United States government?…

    • 8535 Words
    • 35 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Progressive Era

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Although the reformers of this movement consisted of a diverse group of individuals-- journalists, politicians, middle class, and men and women --- the thing that united them was their goal of protecting the people, solve urbanization and industrialization problems, improve social welfare, and of course promoting the ideal of democracy. These everlasting effects are shown even until present day in two distinct ways. The most important effect is the difference between prior existing and modern definitions of democracy. Direct democracy is a government run on people’s say and in which people decide policy initiatives directly. However, the definition has changed over the years and the new western democratic definition is a government which incorporates the people’s ideas as well as elected officials which is slightly different than the previous example. Because of this continuous push of democracy, America’s [policeman] role in the world is relevant in this paper. The spread of western democracy’s (although a bit different) ideals. A key example is the 2016 Presidential Election between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Hillary Clinton. Numerous times in their discussions and debates, the topic of democracy and whether its ideals are protected was common during the time period of the election. In…

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Countries such as Hungary wrote new constitutions implementing democracy solely on the platform of knowing that they did not want communism (Graham 154). As a result no concrete decision on how to rule was ever setup and many of these nations still face political upheaval. The main problem which stems problem from a lack of consensus is the ensuing inability to legislate with authority. However, leaders with in each country failed to recognize that when you govern merely through authority you lack any legitimacy (Graham 169). Political scientists who study the failings of post-communist nations developed four ways to help achieve legitimacy: procedure, results, habit, and identity. If these four elements can be forged into a process of electoral change, than legitimacy is a possible…

    • 2162 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Military Recognition

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages

    He argues democracy starts the efforts to ensure distinct of every people have, which is recognition. From that point my argument that ‘democracy is not the final destination because it can’t cover the innovation’ was defeated. He argues democracy was born to cover innovation, and also democracy is the innovation itself.…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics