Dear colleagues,

 

Marc Bühlmann and I are organizing the panel "Measuring the Quality of
Democracy" for the next ECPR General Conference, to take place in Potsdam in
2009 (please find the description below). The panel is part of the Section
"Comparing Origins and Effects of Political Institutions", organized by Arco
Timmermans (University of Leiden) and Lise Rakner (University of Bergen).
The panel is not yet complete so we are still looking for participants
interested in this topic and willing to present a paper at the ECPR General
Conference. The deadline for the submission of panel proposals is September
1. We would need your responses before this date to include your paper
directly into our proposal. It is also possible to apply via the ECPR
General Conference homepage after September 1.

Please circulate this email to all those who you think may be interested.

 

Kind regards,

 

Heiko 

 

 

Call for papers: 2009 ECPR General Conference in Potsdam

PANEL „Measuring the Quality of Democracy“

 

This panel aims at discussing (quantitative) approaches to the measurement
of democracy which focus not only on institutional settings but also on
their impact on democracy as such or, in other words, on the quality of
democracy.

In the empirical research on democracy, one can recognize a shift from the
development of typologies of regimes to the measurement of aspects of the
quality of a democratic regime. The question no longer is ‘democracy or not’
but ‘what makes a democracy good or better’. However, the widely used
quantitative measurements of democracy are considered being too coarse to
measure the quality of democracy. This is partly due to their exclusive
focus on institutional settings, due to their minimalist approach of
democracy or due to methodological shortcomings. 

Research aiming at developing new instruments need to answer to a couple of
questions: What should be understood with the term ‘quality of democracy’
and which principles are related to it? Are all aspects of democracy equally
important for the overall quality or can certain core dimensions be
identified? Are there trade-offs between certain dimensions of democracy in
the context of democratic quality? Which methodological approaches are able
to measure the quality of democracy? 

 

 

 

---

Heiko Giebler
Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB)
Department DSL
Reichpietschufer 50
10785  Berlin
Germany
 
Tel.:         +49 - 30 - 25491 - 329
Mail:          <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
 
 

 


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