Challenges in conceptualizing and measuring meanings and understandings of democracy

Abstract

Research on meanings and understandings of democracy is growing. But besides useful theoretical and empirical insights, this research produces open questions concerning the conceptualization and the measurement of meanings of democracy. This special section—and especially this introductory paper and the different contributions—reflect on several key challenges and thereby go beyond the debate about advantages and disadvantages of open and closed questions measuring meanings of democracy in surveys. Both conceptualization and measurement have different challenges which researchers should take into account when developing research designs, specifically by doing cross-cultural comparisons. Other challenges are connected to the debate on universalism versus relativism and the usage of various terms, which are often not clearly defined. This paper offers an analytical framework to distinguish between meanings and understandings of democracy, thereby integrating comparative political theory and empirical democracy research through inductive and deductive approaches. And it gives an overview of the contributions of this special section. In sum, research on meanings and understandings of democracy is needed to gain a better picture of political cultures around the world.

Assessing the public understanding of democracy through conjoint analysis

“…what people think with respect to democracy. Open-ended questions and close-ended questions have been used in survey research (see Shin and Kim, 2018;Osterberg-Kaufmann et al, 2020 for a review). On the one hand, open-ended questions reveal the properties, which the respondents identify as essential characteristics of democracy.…”

Measuring democracy among ordinary citizens—Challenges to studying democratic ideals

“…Measuring democracy, or more concretely, attitudes toward democracy, has a long tradition; however, what has been analyzed has changed more and more. Notably, the "meanings of democracy" approach to its measurement demands better measurement of the way democracy is perceived (Schedler and Sarsfield, 2007;Shin, 2017;Frankenberger and Buhr, 2020;Osterberg-Kaufmann et al, 2020;Quaranta, 2020;Davis et al, 2021). Amidst growing criticism, notably of the famous "satisfaction with democracy" question in international surveys (Canache et al, 2001;Shin, 2017), new measures are developed in an effort to differentiate between different understandings of democracy.…”

“…Extending research on the meanings of democracy measured on an individual level (Schedler and Sarsfield, 2007;Shin, 2017;Frankenberger and Buhr, 2020;Osterberg-Kaufmann et al, 2020;Quaranta, 2020;Davis et al, 2021), this paper discusses the possibility of measuring attitudes of democracy on an individual level using quantitative methods. This reflection realized in a survey conducted between July and December 2020 to test different methodological elements.…”

Affluence and Preferences for Democratic Representation: The Case of German Citizens and Legislators.

“…A common finding is that citizens hold different conceptions of democracy (e.g. Canache 2012; Dalton, Sin, and Jou 2007;Osterberg-Kaufmann, Stark, and Mohamad-Klotzbach 2020). These differences relate among others to the scope of political participation and deliberation vis-á-vis representation, the role of experts, or the weight of majoritarian decisions compared to the protection of minority rights and institutional constraints.…”