Deck 4: Democracy and Dictatorship: Conceptualization and Measurement

Question 1

The Democracy-Dictatorship (DD) measure of democracy classifies a country as a democracy if (a) the chief executive is elected, (b) the legislature is elected, (c) more than one party competes, and (d) there has been an alternation in power. The Freedom House measure classifies a country's level of "freedom" based on many criteria, including whether the government is accountable, the level of corruption, if minorities are autonomous, if people are treated equally under the law, if they have equality of opportunity, and so on. Say you had the following hypothesis: Governments are less corrupt in democracies than in non-democracies.
-If you want your hypothesis to be falsifiable, which measure of democracy should you use?

A) you should use DD
B) you should use Freedom House
C) you could use either measure and the hypothesis would be falsifiable
D) you should not use either measure

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The Democracy-Dictatorship (DD) measure of democracy classifies a country as a democracy if (a) the chief executive is elected, (b) the legislature is elected, (c) more than one party competes, and (d) there has been an alternation in power. The Freedom House measure classifies a country's level of "freedom" based on many criteria, including whether the government is accountable, the level of corruption, if minorities are autonomous, if people are treated equally under the law, if they have equality of opportunity, and so on. Say you had the following hypothesis: Governments are less corrupt in democracies than in non-democracies.
-Say you had the following hypothesis: Democracies are more likely than dictatorships to join international organizations.
If you want your hypothesis to be falsifiable, which measure of democracy should you use?

A) You should use Democracy-Dictatorship.
B) You should use Freedom House.
C) You could use either measure and the hypothesis would be falsifiable.
D) You should not use either measure.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The Democracy-Dictatorship (DD) measure of democracy classifies a country as a democracy if (a) the chief executive is elected, (b) the legislature is elected, (c) more than one party competes, and (d) there has been an alternation in power. The Freedom House measure classifies a country's level of "freedom" based on many criteria, including whether the government is accountable, the level of corruption, if minorities are autonomous, if people are treated equally under the law, if they have equality of opportunity, and so on. Say you had the following hypothesis: Governments are less corrupt in democracies than in non-democracies.
-Say you had the following hypothesis: Citizens have greater equality of opportunity in democracies than in non-democracies.
If you want your hypothesis to be falsifiable, which measure of democracy should you use?

A) You should use Democracy-Dictatorship.
B) You should use Freedom House.
C) You could use either measure and the hypothesis would be falsifiable.
D) You should not use either measure.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

A minimalist conceptualization of democracy classifies a country as being democratic if it

A) has a minimal set of civil rights
B) has certain institutions
C) produces certain outcomes

Question 5

Democracy-Dictatorship classifies countries as democracies or dictatorships. Their measure of democracy is a(n):

A) ordinal measure of democracy.
B) interval measure of democracy.
C) nominal measure of democracy.

Question 6

Imagine that a scholar wants to develop a measure of preelectoral coordination among parties in democracies. If she decides that she is most interested in whether two parties coordinate their electoral strategies at all versus both competing independently in an election, then is she conceptualizing preelectoral coordination in terms of a dichotomy or a continuum?

A) Dichotomy
B) Continuum

Question 7

Imagine that a scholar wants to develop a measure of preelectoral coordination among parties in democracies. If she thinks about the level of preelectoral coordination between any two parties as going from running independently at one extreme to merging into a single party at the other extreme, then is she conceptualizing preelectoral coordination in terms of a dichotomy or a continuum?

A) Dichotomy
B) Continuum

Question 8

Imagine that the true value of economic inequality in country X is 4, on a scale from 1 to 10. Say four people code the level of economic inequality in country X using two different measures of inequality, A and B. Measure A yields values of 2, 3, 5, and 6. Measure B yields values 6, 6, 7, and 6. Is Measure A or Measure B a more reliable measure of democracy in country X?

A) A is more reliable.
B) B is more reliable.
C) they are both equally reliable.

Question 9

A "reliable" measure is one that

A) corresponds to the concept that it is intended to reflect.
B) repeatedly and consistently produces the same score for a given case.
C) can be reproduced by third-party scholars.

Question 10

The economic growth rate in Bangladesh in 2000 was 3.7%. What kind of measure is this?

A) ordinal measure of democracy
B) interval measure of democracy
C) nominal measure of democracy

Question 11

Imagine that the true value of democracy in country X is 5. Say four people code the level of democracy in country X using two different measures of democracy, A and B. Measure A yields values of 3, 4, 6, and 7. Measure B yields values 6, 6, 7, and 6. Is Measure A or Measure B a more valid measure of democracy in country X?

A) A is more valid.
B) B is more valid.
C) They are both equally valid.

Question 12

In ancient times, demokratia meant

A) rule by the people.
B) rule by the rich people.
C) rule by the poor people.
D) rule by the philosopher king.

Question 13

Aristotle believed that democracy was a corrupt form of government.

Question 14

Why did Dahl talk about polyarchies rather than democracies?

A) because he was not interested in democracies
B) because all countries have democratic characteristics
C) because he did not believe that any country was truly democratic
D) because he thought that there were many types of democracies

Question 15

A government is an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory.

Question 16

A ______ is an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory and a ______ is the set of people who run the state or have the authority to act on behalf of a state.

A) state; government
B) state; regime
C) regime; government
D) regime; state
E) government; state

Question 17

When George W. Bush left office and Barack Obama became president, there was a change in ______.

A) government
B) regime
C) state

Question 18

When we talk about dictatorships and democracies, we are categorizing ______.

A) governments
B) regimes
C) states