Measuring Democracy

There are a number of things I want to talk about today. Here’s a few aspects of the data I am trying to figure out:

• Serbia is one of my countries, and that is causing huge problems because Serbia itself wasn’t independent until 2006. Every data set treats “Serbia” a different way in past years, as it prior to 2006 it was Serbia and Montenegro, and before that it was Yugoslavia. The history of the Balkans has made this super tricky… I am unclear how to best represent Serbia.
• I have read around the blogs and it seems like there are a few people encountering the same contradictory scores as I am. Greece is all across the board. In the Polity score, from just after WWII, a strong 10 in Polity IV. Then it drops to around 4, and in 1967, it plummets to -7. This pattern is evident in the rest of the rest of the scores as well, but the different comes in the period after this un-democratic 6 or so years in Greece. FH continues to give the country high scores (7 and 6) for a in 74 and 75, where as the rest of the scores are already back scoring it as a full democracy right after the conflict in 73.
• Then I have to ask myself… should I even use the data on Greece that goes that far back? With all my other countries becoming independent only 20 years ago, perhaps I just look at ’85 onward and use Greece as my benchmark for strong democracy in comparison to the other countries.
• What about scores I think do work for my region? Considering everyone one of these countries, minus greece, was under Communist control until 1989-1990 (minus Greece). The PRC measurement is great to visualize the changes in regimes in the Balkans. I also like the trichotomous nature of the measurement, and the simple way they come up with the 3 prongs of measurement. Only problem with it… it stops at 1998. But it is still somewhat useful.
• I also like Polity scores. Although in the readings this week it is accused of being too dichotomous, and that he overall score masks some of the intracies of the measurement, I think it does a good job of illustrating how countries move up and down on the scale.