Democratising the Measurement of Democratic Quality: Public Attitude Data and the Evaluation of African Political Regimes

Logan, Carolyn; Mattes, Robert

doi:10.1057/eps.2011.50

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Being "good listeners" (or at least, "better listeners") may be a particularly valued trait of traditional authorities. Logan and Mattes (2011) link the extent to which people perceive their elected representatives to be good listeners to the degree of regime responsiveness, or the extent to which governments actually respond to popular demands and do what people want. Diamond and Morlino (2005) identify responsiveness as a core democratic quality, but Logan and Mattes find that most Africans give their governments very poor ratings in this regard.…”

Section: Figure 7: Trust In Traditional Leaders and Local Government mentioning

confidence: 99%

The roots of resilience: Exploring popular support for African traditional authorities

Logan¹

2013

African Affairs

160

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By 2010, it has become clear that in most of Africa, traditional authorities are a resilient lot, just as much a part of the "modern" political landscape as any constitution, legislature or local council. Analysts have proposed a wide array of possible explanations for this phenomenon, focusing variously on sources of legitimacy, issues of performance or function, and leadership qualities. They draw sharply different conclusions, most notably with regard to whether they believe that traditional authorities survive and thrive because of the preferences of the mass public, or only at the behest of the state, and in fact in opposition to the popular will. Data collected in 19 countries during Round 4 (2008-2009) of the Afrobarometer allows us to explore these hypotheses more systematically and on a larger scale than previous analyses. The findings are somewhat startling in the intensity of the support for traditional authority that they reveal, presenting a stark challenge to those who still argue that traditional leadership is an unabashedly negative and decidedly undemocratic force in Africa. While Africans find these leaders to be flawed, they nonetheless believe that traditional authorities have an essential role to play in local governance. They place considerable value on the role traditional authorities play in managing and resolving conflict, and on their leadership qualities and their accessibility to ordinary people. There is also evidence to suggest that traditional leaders play an essential symbolic role as representatives of community identity, unity, continuity and stability. In fact, the evidence suggests that traditional leaders derive their support at least as much from who they are as from what they do.

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Section: Figure 7: Trust In Traditional Leaders and Local Government mentioning

confidence: 99%

The roots of resilience: Exploring popular support for African traditional authorities

Logan¹

2013

African Affairs

160

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“…17 If we move away from focusing on a single country and follow this second proposal for 19 African countries, it becomes clear that using people-centred measurement has a real impact on the democracy rankings of some countries. Using the data from the Afrobarometer and Logan and Mattes (2012), my analyses show, for example, that Logan and Mattes (2012: 380). Logan and Mattes calculated a score of 2.4 for South Africa.…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 97%

“…A measurement process following this second proposal would result in a score of 4.9 for South Africa (see Table 3, and see Logan and Mattes 2012 for more details of the questions and specific calculations). This score is quite low on the overall scale from 0 to 10.…”

Section: Developing a New People-centred Measurement Of Democracy: Nementioning

confidence: 99%

Where Are the People? A Call for People-Centred Concepts and Measurements of Democracy

Doorenspleet¹

2015

Gov. & oppos.

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This article aims to bring the people to the heart of democracy measurement. Existing measurements have reinforced the idea that democracy is the domain of the state with its procedures, institutions and political elites. But where are the people in those measurements? So far, when we measure democracy we rely on experts who determine what democracy is, while people’s views have been ignored. This happens not only during the phase of conceptualization, but also during operationalization. The specific way we measure democracy feeds elitism and is emblematic of how our discipline has developed, namely an ivory tower in which political scientists define and measure democracy without taking people’s views seriously. The article proposes new people-centred measures of democracy and discusses their effect on the rankings of countries and their strengths and weaknesses. The future of the study of democracy lies in developing new measures that challenge our current understanding of democracy and assist us in developing new perspectives, thus reinvigorating democracy studies.

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“…By disaggregating the key definitional components of democracy, scholars are better able to evaluate the democratic qualities of regimes (Elkins, 2000;Logan & Mattes, 2010) and provide a greater level of theoretical specificity in understanding citizens' perceptions of democracy. We have chosen to emphasize the definitional component of press freedom, as it plays an integral role in the process of democratic consolidation, influencing both the supply and the demand of democracy in several unique ways (see Bajomi-Lázár, 2008).…”

Section: Press Freedom and Democratic Consolidationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let the People Speak

Nisbet

Stoycheff

2011

Communication Research

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Democracy and press freedom have a long, intertwined history. This article builds on previous research examining democratic consolidation by developing a theoretical model to explicate the multilevel relationships between the openness of national media systems and citizens' perceptions about press freedom in emerging democracies. We combine individual-level public opinion data from the 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Survey with institutional data from Freedom House to examine institutional and individual predictors of perceived supply and citizen demand for press freedom. The results of the analyses demonstrate a relationship between characteristics of national media systems and citizen perceptions and preferences about press freedom, although individual factors such as educational attainment, reliance on print media, evaluations of media and state performance, and regime support play a more meaningful role in shaping perceptions about press freedom. Theoretical implications for understanding citizen attitudes about press freedom and their relationship with democratization are discussed.

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Democratising the Measurement of Democratic Quality: Public Attitude Data and the Evaluation of African Political Regimes

Cited by 15 publications

References 12 publications

The roots of resilience: Exploring popular support for African traditional authorities

The roots of resilience: Exploring popular support for African traditional authorities

Where Are the People? A Call for People-Centred Concepts and Measurements of Democracy

Let the People Speak

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