Regime Classification Exercise: Stage Two

[This is also available as a document in our Dropbox folder, but you may wish to ask questions here]

Due: Midnight 23 August 2013, in this here blog. Each tutorial group will submit one proposal.

The second part of the Regime Classification Exercise involves creating a set of criteria that can be used to classify regimes as democratic or not, or more or less democratic than others. Your system may describe how to construct a simple index of democracy from 0 to 10, or it may describe a two dimensional compass [with two independent factors on the x and y axis and “more democratic” on one quadrant], or it may describe how to determine whether a regime belongs in one of number of categories [e.g., democracy, communist dictatorship, military dictatorship, etc.], etc. As long as the system clearly and consistently identifies democracies or more democratic regimes, anything goes.

Keep in mind the classification systems that Freedom House, Polity IV, or other organizations use, as these may serve as useful guides to base your own classification system on. You may present the system as a set of “checklist” questions like the ones used by Freedom House here: http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world-2012/checklist-questions-and-guidelines, plus some additional information about how to weigh and interpret the answers to your checklist questions, and some justification for your choices (why look at these criteria and not others?).

When designing the criteria, the research question should be kept in mind: Are democracies better for the poor than dictatorships? The classification system voted in by the class will be used to determine which countries are democracies (or more democratic) for the purposes of the research question.

The point is not necessarily to create the most accurate classification system possible – with many variables and requiring extensive research – but to identify a few criteria that can serve to quickly and consistently identify which countries are more or less democratic (or which are democratic, which are other regimes) for the purposes of the question. Keep in mind that you’ll be doing the research; this means that you should try to select criteria for which information is likely to be widely available, and which other students in the class are likely to be able to understand. One way of ensuring that the system is workable is to pre-test it, by selecting a few cases (like the countries used in the first tutorial) and asking various members of the group to classify them (separately) to see if everyone reaches the same answer.

Try to be as specific as possible, and consider potential pitfalls. For example, if one of your checklist questions asks about whether elections are held, what should the answer be for years in which no elections are held? If one of your questions asks about corruption, what should count as high or low corruption? “Subjective” judgments cannot be completely eliminated, but you should try to provide guidance that other students can use (for example, “look for reports of widespread embezzlement by senior government figures” or “use the judgments of transparency international if available”).

Along with your classification system, you may also want to submit additional information. You may want to focus on a specific period in time, or a certain geographical area, or a particular kind of regime. Justification for why you wish to do so will be required. In particular, you may want to say something about how you think we should be measuring poverty, what would it mean to say that a system is better for the poor, and why we should expect particular political systems (democratic or not) to be better (or not) for the poor in that sense.

Also due at the same time is the individual self-assessment of your participation in this stage of the project. This is worth 5%. A link to a self-assessment form will be available later.

The various classification systems will be open for comment and critique up until 9 September, when the class will vote on which system to use in the next stage of the assignment.