Kate's Blog

A blog that I enjoyed reading throughout the term was Jocelyn’s Diagnosis on Democracy. Her post on the fall of the Conservative government was really interesting because of her in-depth discussion of what it means to be “in contemp” of parliement. I like how she assessed whether Harper should still be running in the next election, critiqued the system that allows him to do this and asked all the right questions. Most of all I like the fact that Jocelyn’s post comes full circle and assess the effect this has on our democracy.

I also enjoyed her opinionated through social media piece because it was really interesting to see the diffrence in blogging based on gender.

Since I’m still working on my blog I wish I had more posts to choose my “best post” from. Nonetheless, one of my favorite posts was one that I wrote on the development of democracy in Tunisia. I really enjoyed writing this post because it was a follow-up to my first Democracy in the News post.

We started the term at about the same time that the Jasmine revolution began, which was my first Democracy in the News post. Later on in the term, it seemed like we had forgotten about the democracy in the countries we’d discussed during their revolutions so I decided to write about what was happening in Tunisia post-revolution.

I like this post because all too often I get caught up in the big headlines and forget about the important pieces of news that are more low-key. This is why it was interesting to go back and write about Tunisia again, as other countries had become more newsworthy in the last little bit.

Hope you enjoy(ed) my blog!

In an article on the protests in Egypt, the U.S. director of national intelligence stated that “specific triggers for how and when instability would lead to the collapse of various regimes cannot always be known or predicted”. And while there was not a specific trigger that caused the revolution in Egypt, the Jasmine Revolution which took place just before is said to have been an indirect trigger.

The New York Times article lists the “large unmet expectations of the people; the large numbers of youth, many of them well educated but jobless; and the dynamic role of the Internet” as pressures that were building in the region long before Tunisia’s revolution. The article lists “the regressive regimes, the economic and political instability, a stagnation, the lack of freedoms,[and] the need for political reforms” as evidence that has contributed to the pressures that were building. The Telegraph also lists similar factors that contributed to the popular protests such as hundreds of thousands protestors “fed up with high unemployment, a corrupt elite and police repression”.

While the role of the Internet lead to the mobilization of protesters that caused Mubarak to step down, it’s probably the most useful to attribute the unemployment of the Egyptian youth to the cause of protesting. Many political scientists acknowledge economic factors as causes for democratization and in class today, we discussed the dissatisfaction that arises from economic inequality. This is the dissatisfaction that was felt by the youth in Egypt that created the atmosphere of mistrust between the people and the government that was not doing enough to procure employment its qualified citizens.

For our first paper I’ve chosen the region of Post-Soviet Europe. Since we’re writing a report spanning from 1985 to present that encompasses the decline and eventual fall of the Soviet Union from the 80’s to the 90’s, I think examining this region will allow me to focus on the transition from communism to the emergence of a democracy. Also, I’ve always been interested in all things Europe.

I’m sure that many restaurant goers have visited a dine-out review website at least once before going to a new place. For Vancouverites, two of the more popular restaurant review websites are Dinehere and Urbanspoon so I wanted to compare how each site awards a given restaurant its respective score.

Urbanspoon.com uses a dichotomous scale where voters can say they either like a restaurant or not. The site then provides the reader with a percentage of the voters who have “liked” a the restaurant. Dinehere.ca on the other hand provides a much more comprehensive review. Each restaurant is given an overall score out of 5 stars. However this score is comprised of 4 subscales that are also 5 stars each, though they each measure a separate aspect: food, service, value and ambiance. Furthermore, the website allows you to view every individual person’s full review.

Here are reviews from both sites for 5 restaurants:

The Foundation – DH: 3/5, US: 78%
The Eatery – DH: 3/5 , US: 73%
Stepho’s Greek Taverna – DH: 3/5, US: 77%
Pho Central – DH: 3/5, US: 91%
The Fringe Café – DH: 3.5/5, US: 57%

The dichotomous nature of Urbanspoon gives us a continuous range of scores but these scores are based on only one criteria making it difficult to know what the measurement is based on. However, Dinehere allows you to get a more complete idea of why the restaurant is rated the way it is and allows for a higher degree of differentiation.

“So what is democracy, anyway?”

I guess the easy way out would be to open a dictionary and look it up but unfortunately “democracy” is not just a 4 syllable noun derived from the Greek work demokratia meaning -dēmos ‘the people’ + -kratia ‘power, rule.’ Democracy is not a word that resonates the same meaning whenever and wherever it is said because it is an abstract idea that has taken many forms over the years.

Political scientists have been trying to standardize ‘democracy’ for a long time. However, this has in reality created various ideas and ideals. Schumpeter strives for a minimalist definition of democracy based on free elections. Dahl creates an idealistic concept of democracy that includes 8 variables that must be met (all the while accepting that this definition is unattainable). Sartori proposes a ladder of generality having forms of democracy move up or down from the root meaning and there is also the idea of diminished subtypes that refer to what is missing from a regime being fully democratic. Finally, there’s either the question of whether democracy conceptualization should be dichotomous or graded?

My definition of democracy is somewhere between Schumpeter and Dahl. I think that there should be an attainable target of a few variables (fair elections, suffrage and protection of civil liberties) that defines countries that are democracies from ones that are not. These regimes labeled “democracies” can then be graded based on how democratic they are. This flexibility of describing democracies based on how democratic they are (opposed to yes or no), allows for changes to be observed while the democracy develops or deteriorates.

There has been much talk about what will happen to Tunisia’s government after the protests that led the president to resign. A few articles have mentioned the demand for a “genuine democracy” by Tunisians. This article suggests that Tunisian protesters want a new and genuine democracy.

I think, in this case the word “genuine” being used with democracy could be a diminished subtype, one of the strategies Collier & Levitsky touch upon. Diminished subtypes identify attributes that are missing and perhaps in the case of Tunisia, “genuine” refers to an honest, uncorrupt democracy.

While this adjective is wishy-washy as it’s already difficult enough to summarize an undisputed definition for democracy, it does avoid conceptual stretching as it’s not claiming to be a complete democracy therefore also moving down the ladder of differentiation and away from the root of “democracy”. However, the authors also suggest “for countries that are less than fully democratic … the questions arises as to whether it would be better to avoid identifying them as subtypes of democracy” (p.441).

Another example I found is about Western-style democracy in Cote d’Ivoire. Here Western-style democracy (characterized by multi-party elections) is being used to create a concept that moves down the ladder of differentiation and would probably fit closely to parliamentary democracy. Here, the concept has more conceptual differentiation and can be applied to less cases therefore giving it more defined attributes.

From here, Western-style democracies can be considered “classical” subtypes of democracies that are also considered as “full instances of the root definition of democracy” (p.435). Therefore Western-style democracy would be considered definitely democratic which could create problems. A perfect example is this case of Cote d’Ivoire which has yet to witness the results of multi-party elections. Cote d’Ivoire still lacks well-founded rules concerning presidential elections or other political dealings and there are still possibilities for elections to be rigged and powerful conflicts based on ethic, religious and regional differences.

Reading everyone’s introductions, I’ve noticed that we have some things in common. The love of traveling, music and great films are amongst the many that stand out.

Traveling. This is kind of a double-feature since traveling and phtotgraphy go hand in hand. I’ve been addicted to Trey Ratcliff’s travel blog for quite a while now. He takes amazing HDR photos during his travels to places like China and New Zealand. Stuck In Customs is a great blog to follow if you want to see great travel photos made even better in HDR.

This is for Merrin, Jon and Alex.

Music. I love music and one of my favorite pastimes is searching for new music.

Thomas, I read that you like The Decemberists so I’m assuming you’re just as excited as I am to get The King is Dead. Another album that’s released tomorrow is Cape Dory by Tennis. I think you would like them, so this link is for you.

Films. I love great movies, especially those ones that make you laugh and sob. Jocelyn, here are a few of my favorite movie that you can enjoy once you have some free time.

1. The Darjeeling Limited(or any other film directed by Wes Anderson)
2. Marie Antoinette
3. 500 Days of Summer

I’m Kate (Katarina) and I was born in Belgrade, Serbia but I moved to Vancouver right before the NATO bombings. I grew up in a very traditional Eastern-European family with lots and lots and lots of delicious food. My mom still calls me at least 3 times a day to inquire about what I’ve eaten and ask if I’m hungry. I’ve become a really good cook and can whip up a meal with barely any groceries in the fridge!

Although friends and acquaintances try to convince me that my English is prefect, I’m still self-conscious of my “accent” and inability to differentiate my V’s and W’s. All this aside, I’m planning to attend law school after getting my French degree.

Since I visit my family in Serbia often, last summer I extended my trip and backpacked through most of Europe visiting 13 countries in 2 months. Despite a lengthy VISA bill and spending 24 hours in a Czech train without air conditioning (in July), I had an amazing experience and I can’t wait to plan my future trip to Thailand.

Also, I love snowboarding, yoga and occasionally picking up my guitar in hopes of actually learning some chords…