In their article, Collier and Levitsky focus on a “procedural minimum” definition of democracy for their examination of the various adjectives that have arisen in front of the term ‘democracy’ in academia. In dealing with the conceptualizing of a newfound diversity of post-authoritarian regimes, scholars have exhibited two contradictory goals. The first, analytic differentiation, refers to the attempt to capture the diversity in the forms of democracy that have emerged. The second, conceptual validity, is concerned with avoiding the conceptual stretching that occurs when the concept of democracy is made applicable to cases which, by scholarly standards, it is not applicable. This latter goal results in subtypes of democracy, and espouses the title of Collier and Levitsky’s piece, “Democracy with Adjectives.”

Example 1:

A day to celebrate American democracy 

In the example above, the phrase “American democracy” is moving down Santori’s ladder of generality, aiming at increasing differentiation, not conceptual stretching. It is “precising” the definition of democracy by adding a defining attribute that does not contradict the definition of democracy itself (be it procedural minimum or expanded procedural minimum). Thus, it is a classical (as per Collier and Levitsky) or traditional (as per lecture notes) subtype of democracy. In other words, if you were to remove the adjective “American” from the phrase “American democracy,” we would still be referring to a democracy in this context.

Here is another example of the usage of the phrase “American democracy:”

Presidential inaugurations: American democracy in its glory and shabbiness 

Example 2:

Nigeria: Country As an Emerging Democracy: The Dilemma and the Promise 

While the phrase “emerging democracy” is also moving down Santori’s ladder of generality, the subtype that it represents is a diminished subtype. I classify it as such because, firstly, this subtype is not a full instance of the root definition (type) of democracy, and secondly, it represents an incomplete form of democracy. In other words, if you were to remove the term “emerging” from the phrase “emerging democracy,” the use of the term democracy would become incorrect in this context.