Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics

by Gerardo L. Munck

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 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.

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Molly M Castillo Keefe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completo en lo que se propone

Munck aborda los principales problemas del uso de datos para medir la democracia y la promoción democrática. Fácil de entender. Cómo en la mayoría de los libros en Kindle, la manera en la que se presentan los distintos cuadros y tablas, debería ser mejorada.