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Does the Choice of Democracy Measure Matter? Comparisons between the Two Leading Democracy Indices, Freedom House and Polity IV

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

John Högström
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Abstract

This article investigates whether two different measures of democracy generate the same empirical results. The Freedom House and Polity IV measures are used as the dependent variables. The result shows that statistical significance and explanatory power for different independent variables differ greatly, depending on which democracy index is used as the dependent variable. The results also indicate that Freedom House and Polity IV rate many countries’ levels of democracy differently. It is worrying and problematic for comparative studies of democracy that empirical results differ so much according to which measure of democracy is used.

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Government and Opposition , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 201 - 221
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Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 2012

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Footnotes

*

John Högström is a doctoral student in political science at Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden. Contact email: john.hogstrom@miun.se.

References

Sources For The Dependent Variable And The Independent Variables

Area: Central Intelligence Agency, ‘The World Factbook’, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook.Google Scholar
Enrolment ratio in education: UNDP, International Human Development indicators; currently unavailable on the internet, but available from the author on request.Google Scholar
Freedom House: Freedom House, ‘Freedom in the World 2010’, www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2010.Google Scholar
GDP/capita: United Nations Statistics Division, National Accounts Main Aggregates Database, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/selbasicFast.asp.Google Scholar
Polity IV: Polity IV, ‘Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2010’, www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm.Google Scholar
Population: United States Census Bureau International Program, International Data Base (IDB), www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/ranks.php.Google Scholar

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