Abstract
Empirical studies often use Freedom House ratings for Political Rights and/or Civil Liberties as institutional proxies for the degree of democracy. In this study, Granger-causality tests are used which reveal that Political Rights tend to precede Civil Liberties, but not the reverse, in a panel data set of former Soviet Republics. For transition nations, Freedom House also publishes a separate breakdown of democratic characteristics. Empirical tests suggest Civil Society and Judicial Framework Granger-cause Electoral Process, Governance Granger-causes Civil Society, and all four components Granger-cause Independent Media. Each measure of democracy is related to at least one other but no evidence for dual causation is found.
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Notes
Nieswiadomy and Strazicich (2004) show that the average level of political freedoms is increasing overall from 1972–2001, and also exhibit diminishing variation across countries during this time. However, their sample excludes the former Soviet republics which are the focus of this study.
The Freedom House classification scheme is detailed in a later section.
For example, Beer (2006) argues judicial independence influences respect for the rule of law, both of which are components of the Civil Liberties index (category F1 and F2).
Beginning in 2004, Freedom House replaced the Governance rating with separate National Democratic Governance and Local Democratic Governance scores. It is not clear if the previous Governance rating necessarily treated national and local governance equally, so the analysis here only uses ratings through 2004 rather than continuing the Governance series with the average of the national and local governance ratings.
In considering the relationships between economic freedom indicators and economic growth, Heckelman (2000) presented Granger-causality tests utilizing up to the maximum number of 3 lags on a data set consisting of only four data points per nation, but included far more countries (94) in the panel than are used here.
The lag of Independent Media was always included as a Granger control in all tests presented in Table 6.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Political rights and civil liberties checklist
1.1 Political rights
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A.
Electoral process
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1.
Is the head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections?
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2.
Are the national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections?
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3.
Are the electoral laws and framework fair?
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1.
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B.
Political pluralism
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1.
Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system open to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings?
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2.
Is there a significant opposition vote and a realistic possibility for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections?
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3.
Are the people’s political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, totalitarian parties, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group?
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4.
Do cultural, ethnic, religious, or other minor groups have full political rights and electoral opportunities?
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1.
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C.
Functioning of government
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1.
Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government?
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2.
Is the government free from pervasive corruption?
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3.
Is the government accountable to the electorate between elections, and does it operate with openness and transparency?
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1.
1.2 Civil liberties
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D.
Freedom of expression and belief
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1.
Are there free and independent media and other forms of cultural expression?
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2.
Are religious institutions and communities free to practice their faith and express themselves in public and private?
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3.
Is there academic freedom and is the educational system free of extensive political indoctrination?
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4.
Is there open and free private discussion?
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1.
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E.
Associational and organizational rights
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1.
Is there freedom of assembly, demonstration, and open public discussion?
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2.
Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations?
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3.
Are there free trade unions and peasant organizations or equivalents, and is there effective collective bargaining? Are there free professional and other private organizations?
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1.
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F.
Rule of law
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1.
Is there an independent judiciary?
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2.
Does the rule of law prevail in civil and criminal matters? Are police under direct civilian control?
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3.
Is there protection from political terror, unjustified imprisonment, exile, or torture, whether by groups that support or oppose the system? Is there freedom from war and insurgencies?
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4.
Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population?
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1.
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G.
Personal autonomy and individual rights
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1.
Does the state control travel or choice of residence, employment, or institution of higher education?
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2.
Do citizens have the right to own property and establish private businesses? Is private business activity unduly influenced by government officials, the security forces, political parties/organization, or organized crime?
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3.
Are there personal social freedoms, including gender equality, choice of marriage partners, and size of family?
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4.
Is there equality of opportunity and the absence of economic exploitation?
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1.
Appendix 2: Description of components in democracy index for transition countries
2.1 Electoral process
Examines national executive and legislative elections, electoral processes, the development of multiparty systems, and popular participation in the political process.
2.2 Civil society
Assesses the growth of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), their organizational capacity and financial sustainability, and the legal and political environment in which they function; the development of free trade unions; and interest group participation in the policy process.
2.3 Independent media
Addresses the current state of press freedom, including libel laws, harassment of journalists, editorial independence, the emergence of a financially viable private press, and Internet access for private citizens.
2.4 Governance
Considers the stability of the governmental system; the authority of legislative bodies; decentralization of power; the responsibilities, election, and management of local governmental bodies; and legislative and executive transparency.
2.5 Judicial framework and independence
Highlights constitutional reform, human rights protections, criminal code reform, judicial independence, the status of ethnic minority rights, guarantees of equality before the law, treatment of suspects and prisoners, and compliance with judicial decisions.
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Heckelman, J.C. Relationships among democratic freedoms in the former Soviet Republics: a causality analysis. Const Polit Econ 21, 80–96 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10602-008-9073-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10602-008-9073-1