Measuring Democracy
A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press
Published:7th Apr '09
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£50.50(9780801890925)
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
Measuring Democracy offers specific, real-world lessons that scholars and practitioners can use to improve the quality and utility of data about democracy.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.
There is something for everybody in this book... Highly recommended. -- Todd Landman Journal of Latin American Studies 2010
ISBN: 9780801890932
Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 11mm
Weight: 272g
200 pages