Abstract
This article demonstrates that Axel Hadenius and Jan Teorell’s attempt to disprove a causal effect of emancipative mass orientations on democracy is flawed in each of its three lines of reasoning. First, contrary to Hadenius and Teorell’s claim that measures of “effective democracy” end up in meaningless confusion of democracy and minor aspects of its quality, we illustrate that additional qualifications of democracy illuminate meaningful differences in the effective practice of democracy. Second, Hadenius and Teorell’s finding that emancipative orientations have no significant effect on subsequent measures of democracy from Freedom House is highly unstable: using only a slightly later measure of the dependent variable, the effect turns out to be highly signficant. Third, we illustrate that these authors’ analytical strategy is irrelevant to the study of democratization because the temporal specification they use misses almost all cases of democratization. We present a more conclusive model of democratization, analyzing how much a country moved toward or away from democracy as the dependent variable. The model shows that emancipative orientations had a strong effect on democratization during the most massive wave of democratization ever—stronger than any indicator of economic development. Finally, we illustrate a reason why this is so: emancipative orientations motivate emancipative social movements that aim at the attainment, sustenance, and extension of democratic freedoms.
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Christian Welzel is professor of political science at the International University Bremen (IUB). He is a member of the Executive Committee of the World Values Surveys Association. His research interests focus on democratization, value change, political culture, protest participation, social capital, and human development. Author of more than 60 publications, his recent article is “Democratization as an Emancipative Process.”European Journal of Political Research (2006). His recent book (with Ronald Inglehart) isModernization, Cultural and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence (2005).
Ronald Inglehart is a professor of political science and program director at the Institute of Social Research, University of Michigan. Since 1988, he has directed the World Values Surveys. Author of more than 170 publications, his recent books includeModernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies (1997); (with Chritian Welzel)Modernization, Cultural and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence (2005); and (with Pippa Norris)Gender Equality and Cultural Change (2003). Recent articles include (with Wayne Baker) “Modernization, Cultural Change and the Persistence of Traditional Values.”American Sociological Review. (2000). “How Solid is Mass Support for Democracy—And How Do We Measure It?”PS: Political Science and Politics (2003).
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Welzel, C., Inglehart, R. Emancipative values and democracy: Response to Hadenius and Teorell. St Comp Int Dev 41, 74–94 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686237
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686237