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The Demos Index

Simonsson, Axel LU (2023) STVK04 20231
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Democracy is both a question of who the people are (demos) and how they rule (kratos); our understanding of democracy is imbalanced in favour of the latter. The aim of this thesis is to conduct a pilot project evaluating and comparing the level of democracy from a demos perspective through an index. The findings of a research review establishes the theoretical foundation of the index, which is the Nationalist Principle, the All-Affected Principle, and the Coercion Principle. The principles are selected due to having the most support amongst contemporary political theorists. The level of democracy is evaluated for 87 demoi (85 states, the European Union, and Catalonia), which were selected due to data availability. The evaluation is based... (More)
Democracy is both a question of who the people are (demos) and how they rule (kratos); our understanding of democracy is imbalanced in favour of the latter. The aim of this thesis is to conduct a pilot project evaluating and comparing the level of democracy from a demos perspective through an index. The findings of a research review establishes the theoretical foundation of the index, which is the Nationalist Principle, the All-Affected Principle, and the Coercion Principle. The principles are selected due to having the most support amongst contemporary political theorists. The level of democracy is evaluated for 87 demoi (85 states, the European Union, and Catalonia), which were selected due to data availability. The evaluation is based on relative fulfilment of criteria derived from the principles and measured through twelve standardised indicators presented in a codebook and compiled in a dataset. Index scores are calculated through an aggregation formula giving equal impact to the three theoretical perspectives. The results of the analysis are presented in a diagram comparing the level of democracy from a demos perspective. Suggestions are made for how the index could be improved and used to further study the demos part of democracy. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Simonsson, Axel LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A Pilot Project Constructing a Democracy Index Evaluating the Level Of Democracy From A Demos Perspective
course
STVK04 20231
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Demos, Boundary Problem, Democracy Evaluation, Nationalist Principle, All-Affected Principle, Coercion Principle, Mixed Methods, Democracy Index, Demos Index
language
English
id
9115284
date added to LUP
2023-08-18 16:34:18
date last changed
2023-08-18 16:34:18
@misc{9115284,
  abstract     = {{Democracy is both a question of who the people are (demos) and how they rule (kratos); our understanding of democracy is imbalanced in favour of the latter. The aim of this thesis is to conduct a pilot project evaluating and comparing the level of democracy from a demos perspective through an index. The findings of a research review establishes the theoretical foundation of the index, which is the Nationalist Principle, the All-Affected Principle, and the Coercion Principle. The principles are selected due to having the most support amongst contemporary political theorists. The level of democracy is evaluated for 87 demoi (85 states, the European Union, and Catalonia), which were selected due to data availability. The evaluation is based on relative fulfilment of criteria derived from the principles and measured through twelve standardised indicators presented in a codebook and compiled in a dataset. Index scores are calculated through an aggregation formula giving equal impact to the three theoretical perspectives. The results of the analysis are presented in a diagram comparing the level of democracy from a demos perspective. Suggestions are made for how the index could be improved and used to further study the demos part of democracy.}},
  author       = {{Simonsson, Axel}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Demos Index}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}