Democracy and Changes: How Research Tails Reality

Abstract

The most important traditional topics of empirical theory of democracy have been deeply reshaped by the phenomenon of the diffusion of democracies in the world during at least the last 30 years. More precisely, the definition of democracy is reconsidered under the new light shed by that phenomenon; the issue of hybrid regimes is addressed with all its problems of empirical intractability; the issue of the emergence of a theory, a quasi theory or at least a good theoretical framework about democratisation processes is discussed; and finally a contested issue such as that of the empirical assessment of democratic quality is introduced.

Notes

1. Note that some of the best known books of these years, for example, those by Linz and Stepan (1978), O'Donnell et al. (1986), and Gunther, Diamandouros and Puhle (1995), were known since 1975, 1981, and 1991 respectively in the form of conference papers.

2. Here a recurring and interesting aspect can be stressed: the crisis of democracies of the 1970s gives the opportunity to reassess the crises of democracies of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe.

3. On the several definitions of democracy related to different research goals, see also Morlino (2003: ch. 1).