ABSTRACT
The testing of the hypothesis of democratization formulated in Chapter 2 presupposes variables that measure the degree of democracy. Researchers have formulated various ways to measure democracy, but it has been difficult to agree on the most suitable measures of democracy and democratization. These difficulties are partly related to the fact that definitions of democracy vary to some extent and that researchers have attempted to measure democracy from different perspectives. As a consequence, various measures of democracy have been formulated. In this chapter, I shall first refer to some definitions of democracy and give my own definition of democracy, after which I review some measures of democracy used by other researchers, explain my own perception of the crucial aspects of democracy, formulate the measures of democracy which will be used in this study, and explain the origin and evolution of my measures of democracy. Finally, the measurements of democracy are briefly compared with the Polity scores over the period 1818-1998 and with the Freedom House ratings over the period 1978-98.
