DPI 403 Alternative concepts and measures of democratic governance
Structure I. Assignment #1 (Wed 22 nd ) II. Expanded conceptual framework: democratic governance (Wed 22 nd ) III. How measured? What are indices? (Mon 27 th ) IV. What types of indicators and measures of democratic governance are available? (Mon 27th V. How could you use and present the results effectively for a professional report? (Mon 27 th )
Assignment #1 Part II: Analytics: Diagnostics, benchmarks and indicators 6 Wed 22 Sept Overview: Alternative concepts and measures of democratic governance 7 Mon 28 Sept Introduction to using the QoG and shared class datasets 8 Wed 29 Sept Measuring democracy: Freedom House and Polity IV 9 Mon 4 Oct Measuring governance: WBI Kaufmann Kraay 10 Wed 6 Oct Utilizing the shared CS TS class datasets (Applied Lab session #1)* Mon 11 th Oct No class: Columbus day 11 Wed 13 Oct Survey indicators and democratic audits: WVS 12 Mon 18 Oct Utilizing the shared CS TS class datasets (Applied Lab session #2)* Part III: Options: reform strategies and agencies 13 Wed 20 Oct The role of the UN, regional organizations and bilateral donors #1 report
Assignment #1 The first mid term assignment involves becoming familiar with using the most common indices and cross sectional and time series datasets which you could use to compare and evaluate the quality of democratic governance. You are asked to use selected indicators to write a professional report focused on one world region (such as Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub Saharan Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East) with background material provided in Chapter 18 23 in Haerpfer. The potential client for your report is a regional organization, an international agency, or a bilateral donor. Your client has requested the report to identify the most pressing problems of democratic governance in the region, to prioritize their work within countries. What indicators would you use (and why?), what descriptive trends and summary regional benchmarks would you develop for comparison, and what additional information would you collect, to evaluate and measure political priorities in your region? What secondary literature is available from research journals and monographs to support your argument? As part of the exercise, you should justify your choice of criteria, measures, and evidence for a non technical audience
Assignment #1 Data The QoG and the shared class datasets provide the following resources, along with many others: 1. Freedom House index of political rights and civil liberties 2. Polity IV Project Democracy and Autocracy scales 3. World Values Survey/Global Barometers Attitudinal surveys 4. Kaufmann/Kraay World Bank Institute Good governance indicators
Format and organization Total word length: 2,500 3,000 words (additional Technical Appendices do not count in the total). Your report should be structured with subheadings as follows. I: Executive summary (one page) The key challenges facing democratic governance in the selected region The plan for your report Summary of your key conclusions II. Brief summary of the methodology and indicators used in the report, as well as the reasons for the selection and any caveats III: Analysis highlighting the primary challenges facing the region IV: Conclusions and implications. V: Technical appendix (including longer tables, larger graphs/figures, definitions of indicators and sources, and any multivariate analysis tables, if used.) VI. Endnotes: comprehensive list of literature and references used in the report. A downloadable shared report template and the discussions during class will provide some ideas on these topics. You are encouraged to collaborate with others working on the same region, but each student should submit his or her own report for an individual grade.
Suggestions Communicate your argument in a clear, concise and effective manner, designed for a non technical readership. These are not academic research papers designed for journal publication. Use appendices and endnotes to explain more technical matters. Use effective endnote references citing sources from the peer reviewed research literature, as suggested from the extensive readings listed in the syllabi and others related publications. Use endnotes to support any contentious claims, to provide your client with further sources of evidence, and to acknowledge any data sources. Use professional graphs, figures and tables to illustrate key points with clear, short descriptive titles, and with full explanatory notes and data sources below each one. Integrate short, vivid cases and concrete illustrations to illustrate specific good practice programs and strategies. The standard you should seek to achieve is equivalent to the World Bank Development Report or the UNDP Human Development Report. Consult these sources to check the format and writing style.
Common professional skill Practical use of descriptive statistics and qualitative cases for evidence based performance indicators Country/regional assessments and needs analysis Effective descriptive presentation to display trends and comparisons Accessible for a practitioner readership
II. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Democratic Governance REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY RESTRICTED VOICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY INCLUSIVE VOICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY WEBERIAN BUREAUCRATIC GOVERNANCE EXPANDED GOVERNANCE CAPACITY LIMITED GOVERNANCE CAPACITY
Democratic Governance REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY RESTRICTED VOICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY INCLUSIVE VOICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY WEBERIAN BUREAUCRATIC GOVERNANCE EXPANDED GOVERNANCE CAPACITY LIMITED GOVERNANCE CAPACITY Bureaucratic autocracies Patrimonial autocracies Bureaucratic democracies Patrimonial democracies
Concept of governance Governance reflects the capacity of the state to solve problems To maintain sovereignty and security within national territories, monopoly control over the deployment of military force and legal authority To implement public policies, including managing the delivery of public goods and services Neutral about the contents of any specific policies; not necessarily liberal values Alternative modes of governance can be identified
Modes of Governance CONCEPTS PATRIMONIAL RULE BUREAUCRATIC GOVERNANCE NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT Alternative labels Charismatic or personalistic Modern state Reinventing governance governance Classical origins Max Weber Max Weber E.G. Modern accounts James Wilson Osborne & Gaebler, Hood Key principles for legitimacy Diverse forms of authority and legitimacy (eg dynastic office, party leadership, or Impartial, rational, efficient, and rule based Market oriented public sector management decision making by state officials Characteristic procedural institutions military office) Personalized and informal processes of decision making, lack of rule of law Standardized and transparent law based rules, administrative records, and written procedure More flexible scope for rule based decentralized decision making by local units Centralized or fragmented and localized processes of decisionmaking Informal nepotistic processes of recruitment, lack of technical capacity and training in the public sector Hierarchical process of decision making authority and responsibilities Meritocratic recruitment, training, and career promotion for salaried officials, specialized skills and roles Flatter hierarchies, internal competition, and smaller organizational units to promote innovation, flexibility and feedback learning Incentivization, greater career flexibility, and permeability of the civil service and transfer of personnel from the public, nonprofit and private sectors Vertical processes of formal communication Vertical processes of formal communication Networked processes of formal and informal communication Lack of separation of personal and official roles and responsibilities Separation of personal and official roles and resources Separation of personal and official roles and resources Treatment of citizens and groups on a caseby case basis, lack of accountability Equal rule based treatment of citizens; legal processes of appeal Equitable, fair but less rigid treatment of individual customers; legal basis of appeal Centralized chain of command accountability Decentralized accountability, performance indices, management by results, contracting out delivery, private public
Concept of representative democracy Representative democracy reflects the capacity of people to influence the state Alternative modes of autocratic and democratic rule can be identified Differ by principles, procedures and processes
Concepts Absolute autocracies Electoral autocracies Electoral democracy Liberal democracy Participatory democracy Deliberative democracy Social democracy Powersharing democracy Powercentralizing democracy Alternative labels Minimalist or procedural Representati ve or expanded procedural Direct Discoursive Egalitarian Consociatio nal or consensus Westminster, Centripetal or Majoritarian Classical origins E.G. Modern accounts Key principles for legitimacy Legitimacy from inherited leadership position (absolute monarchie s), or from party office, military office, or personal dictatorshi ps Nationstates with an elected national parliament which fail to meet internation al standards of multiparty competitio n Schumpeter Locke, J.S. Mill Przeworski et al. Legitimacy derived from the competitive struggle for the people's vote Rousseau Habermas Bernstein, Fabians Dahl Pateman Dryzek, Gutmann Legitimacy comes from guarantees of political and civil rights, contestation and participation Legitimacy comes from maximizing citizen participation in direct decisionmaking processes Legitimacy comes from provision of defensible reasons for political decision Lijphart Horowitz Meyer Norris Gerring and Thacker Legitimacy comes from gradualist progressive reforms, effective welfare states, economic/so cial/cultural rights, and egalitarian policy outcomes. Legitimacy comes from dispersed and inclusive decisionmak ing and multiple veto points, horizontal and vertical powersharing institutions, and protection f Legitimacy comes winning popular plurality/ma jority, with decisive electoral outcomes determining party(ies) in government.
NEXT class III. WHAT ARE INDICATORS?