The Quality of Democracy Democracy Barometer for Established Democracies

Abstract

The ultimate goal of project 14 is the development of an analytical instrument able to assess the subtle differences in the quality of established democracies, more precisely OECD countries, which are neglected by existing measures of democracy due to conceptual shortcomings. By addressing these, our democracy barometer tries to fill a gap in the measurement of democracy. The present paper outlines the theoretical basis of the democracy barometer. It consists of a stepwise theoretical deduction of fundamental elements of democracy. The starting point is the premise that a democratic system tries to establish a good balance between the normative, interdependent values of freedom and equality and that this requires control. Second, these three principles are represented institutionally by five so-called partial regimes, making up the root concept of the democracy barometer. A democracy can only be considered healthy if all of these partial regimes as well as their interplay function properly. Third, in order to guarantee the core principles the five partial regimes have to fulfil nine democratic functions. Fourth, to assess the degree of accomplishment of the democratic functions, for each of the partial regimes several components are defined from which specific variables and indicators can be derived. We expect that different combinations of the components are possible. The highest degree of quality of democracy will be attained by a regime that combines the functions in a manner that allows the highest effectiveness in all of them.

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