pols
An Overview
Larry Jay Diamond, Leonardo Morlino
Journal of Democracy, Volume 15, Number 4, October 2004, pp. 20-31
(Article)
Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.1353/jod.2004.0060
For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jod/summary/v015/15.4diamond.html Access provided by Lake Forest College (27 Jun 2013 13:34 GMT)
The Quality of Democracy
AN OVERVIEW
Larry Diamond and Leonardo Morlino
Larry Diamond is coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, codirector of the
International Forum for Democratic Studies, and a senior fellow at the
Hoover Institution. Leonardo Morlino is professor of political science at the University of Florence and director of the Research Centre on Southern Europe. His books include Democrazie e Democratizzazioni (2003).
As democracy has spread to a majority of the world’s states over the past three decades, many scholars, politicians, activists, and aid administrators have gone from asking why transitions happen to asking what the new regimes are like. How can we evaluate—and if need be, help to improve—their quality (or any regime’s quality) both as governments and as democratic governments? This stream of theory, methodological innovation, and empirical research flows from the notions that: 1) deepening democracy is a moral good, maybe even an imperative; 2) reforms to improve democratic quality are essential if democracy is to achieve the broad and durable legitimacy that marks consolidation; and 3) longestablished democracies must also reform if they are to solve their own gathering problems of public dissatisfaction and even disillusionment.
There is plainly room for controversy here. Who, after all, is to say just what makes a “good” or “high-quality” democracy? Is a universal conception of democratic quality even possible? How can efforts to think about democratic quality avoid becoming paternalistic exercises in which the older democracies take
Larry Jay Diamond, Leonardo Morlino
Journal of Democracy, Volume 15, Number 4, October 2004, pp. 20-31
(Article)
Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.1353/jod.2004.0060
For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jod/summary/v015/15.4diamond.html Access provided by Lake Forest College (27 Jun 2013 13:34 GMT)
The Quality of Democracy
AN OVERVIEW
Larry Diamond and Leonardo Morlino
Larry Diamond is coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, codirector of the
International Forum for Democratic Studies, and a senior fellow at the
Hoover Institution. Leonardo Morlino is professor of political science at the University of Florence and director of the Research Centre on Southern Europe. His books include Democrazie e Democratizzazioni (2003).
As democracy has spread to a majority of the world’s states over the past three decades, many scholars, politicians, activists, and aid administrators have gone from asking why transitions happen to asking what the new regimes are like. How can we evaluate—and if need be, help to improve—their quality (or any regime’s quality) both as governments and as democratic governments? This stream of theory, methodological innovation, and empirical research flows from the notions that: 1) deepening democracy is a moral good, maybe even an imperative; 2) reforms to improve democratic quality are essential if democracy is to achieve the broad and durable legitimacy that marks consolidation; and 3) longestablished democracies must also reform if they are to solve their own gathering problems of public dissatisfaction and even disillusionment.
There is plainly room for controversy here. Who, after all, is to say just what makes a “good” or “high-quality” democracy? Is a universal conception of democratic quality even possible? How can efforts to think about democratic quality avoid becoming paternalistic exercises in which the older democracies take