The Quality of Democracy

Description

In 1996, Guillermo O’Donnell taught a seminar at the University of Notre Dame on democratic theory. One of the questions explored in this class was whether it is possible to define and determine the “quality” of democracy. Jorge Vargas Cullell, a student in this course, returned to his native country of Costa Rica, formed a small research team, and secured funding for undertaking a “citizen audit” of the quality of democracy in Costa Rica. This pathbreaking volume contains O’Donnell’s qualitative theoretical study of the quality of democracy and Vargas Cullell’s description and analysis of the empirical data he gathered on the quality of democracy in Costa Rica. It also includes twelve short, scholarly reflections on the O’Donnell and Cullell essays.

The primary goal of this collection is to present the rationale and methodology for implementing a citizen audit of democracy. This book is an expression of a growing concern among policy experts and academics that the recent emergence of numerous democratic regimes, particularly in Latin America, cannot conceal the sobering fact that the efficacy and impact of these new governments vary widely. These variations, which range from acceptable to dismal, have serious consequences for the people of Latin America, many of whom have received few if any benefits from democratization. Attempts to gauge the quality of particular democracies are therefore not only fascinating intellectual exercises but may also be useful practical guides for improving both old and new democracies.

This book will make important strides in addressing the increasing practical and academic concerns about the quality of democracy. It will be required reading for political scientists, policy analysts, and Latin Americanists.

Sujets

• Political Ideologies
• Comparative Politics
• Human Rights
• Political Science
• HISTORY
• Polyarchy
• Policy analysis
• Democratization
• Latin America
• Central America
• SS Central America
• Democracy
• Costa Rica

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268160678
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

The Quality of Democracy
RECENT TITLES FROM THE HELEN KELLOGG INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Scott Mainwaring, general editor

The University of Notre Dame Press gratefully thanks the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies for its support in the publication of titles in this series.
Kevin Healy Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate: Multicultural Grassroots Development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia (2000)
Ernest J. Bartell, C.S.C., and Alejandro O Donnell The Child in Latin America: Health, Development, and Rights (2000)
Vikram K. Chand Mexico s Political Awakening (2001)
Ruth Berins Collier and David Collier Shaping the Political Arena (2002)
Glen Biglaiser Guardians of the Nation? (2002)
Sylvia Borzutzky Vital Connections (2002)
Alberto Spektorowski The Origins of Argentina s Revolution of the Right (2003)
Caroline C. Beer Electoral Competition and Institutional Change in Mexico (2003)
Yemile Mizrahi From Martyrdom to Power (2003)
Charles D. Kenney Fujimori s Coup and the Breakdown of Democracy in Latin America (2003)
Alfred P. Montero and David J. Samuels Decentralization and Democracy in Latin America (2004)
Katherine Hite and Paola Cesarini Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe (2004)
Robert S. Pelton, C.S.C. Monsignor Romero: A Bishop for the Third Millennium (2004)

For a complete list of titles from the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, see http://www.undpress.nd.edu
The Quality of Democracy
Theory and Applications
Edited by
Guillermo O Donnell, Jorge Vargas Cullell, and Osvaldo M. Iazzetta
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Copyright 2004 by University of Notre Dame
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The quality of democracy : theory and applications / edited by Guillermo O Donnell, Jorge Vargas Cullell, and Osvaldo M. Iazzetta.
p. cm.
From the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies.
Based on a workshop on the quality of democracy and human development in Latin America, held in Heredia, Costa Rica, Feb. 1-2, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-268-03719-1 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-268-03720-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Democracy-Latin America-Congresses. 2. Human rights-Latin America-Congresses. 3. Political participation-Latin America-Congresses. 4. Latin America-Economic conditions-1982- -Congresses. I. O Donnell, Guillermo A. II. Vargas Cullel, Jorge. III. Iazzetta, Osvaldo Miguel. IV. Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies. V. Title.
JL966.Q83 2004
321.8-dc22
2004016399
ISBN 9780268160678
This book is printed on acid-free paper .
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
We dedicate this book to the memory of Norbert Lechner, a great intellectual, an inspiring colleague, a loyal friend and, above all, a wonderful human being .
contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword Guillermo O Donnell
Introduction Osvaldo M. Iazzetta
PART I THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL FOUNDATIONS
Chapter 1 Human Development, Human Rights, and Democracy Guillermo O Donnell
Chapter 2 Democracy and the Quality of Democracy: Empirical Findings and Methodological and Theoretical Issues Drawn from the Citizen Audit of the Quality of Democracy in Costa Rica Jorge Vargas Cullell
PART II COMMENTS BY WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
About the Comments
In Search of a New Paradigm: Quality of Democracy and Human Development in Latin America Gabriela Ippolito
Notes on Human Development, Human Rights, and Auditing the Quality of Democracy Laurence Whitehead
Latin America: Virtuous or Perverse Cycle Terry Lynn Karl
Fundamental Rights as a Limitation to the Democratic Principle of Majority Will Juan E. M ndez
On the Imaginary of the Citizenry Norbert Lechner
State, Democracy, and Social Rights Mar a Herm nia Tavares de Almeida
Deepening Civil and Social Rights Catherine M. Conaghan
Unfinished Business for Latin America s Democracies Osvaldo M. Iazzetta
Quality of Democracy or Quality of Politics? Manuel Alc ntara S ez
Quality of Democracy and Its Measurement Michael Coppedge
Democratic Quality: Costs and Benefits of the Concept Sebasti n L. Mazzuca
Conceptual and Methodological Notes on the Quality of Democracy and Its Audit Gerardo L. Munck
Contributors
Index
acknowledgments
T he authors want to express their gratitude to the United Nations Development Program s Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNDP-RBLAC) for its support for the workshop on the Quality of Democracy and Human Development in Latin America, which took place in Heredia, Costa Rica, and which generated the writings published in this volume. We also thank the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for its financial support of the Citizen Audit of the Quality of Democracy in Costa Rica.
Foreword
GUILLERMO O DONNELL
I n 1996, at the University of Notre Dame, I taught a seminar on democratic theory. The class discussed ideas on which I have continued working and that are discussed in my chapter in this volume as well as in some recent publications (especially O Donnell 1999b, 2001, and 2003). In the last sessions of the seminar, we explored the question of whether it was possible to define different degrees, or levels, of quality of democracy and, eventually, how to proceed to this effect. One member of the seminar, Jorge Vargas Cullell, was a particularly active participant in the discussion. A year later, Vargas Cullell, who had returned to his native country, Costa Rica, called to inform me that he and economist Miguel Guti rrez Saxe had formed a small team and secured funding for undertaking an Auditor a Ciudadana de la Calidad de la Democracia (Citizen Audit of the Quality of Democracy) 1 in Costa Rica, starting from ideas we had discussed in the Notre Dame seminar. They invited me to visit Costa Rica to discuss the outline of the project, as well as to meet with several political, institutional, and academic leaders of the country. In these meetings we persuaded ourselves that, although extremely complex and demanding, the project was both possible and potentially very valuable. I followed closely and advised those working on the audit, learning much from the careful and imaginative work that was done. Vargas Cullell s chapter in this volume contains a description of the motives, procedures, goals, and main findings of the Costa Rican audit, yet I suggest the interested reader access the audit s Web page ( www.estadonacion.org.cr ), where more and very interesting details can be found.
Since the inception of the citizen audit, the hope of the Costa Rican team, and, of course, mine as well, was that in addition to the value of the audit for Costa Rica, it would serve as an experiment that later could be applied, with the necessary adjustments, to other cases. That the audit would be carried out first in Costa Rica and by a highly qualified and hard-working team entailed an excellent methodological beginning. Costa Rica is a country with a long and proud democratic tradition, its politics are competitive but not very conflictive, and it is small and unitary-an ideal laboratory for experimenting with such a task. Hopefully, the lessons learned in Costa Rica (some of them distilled in Vargas Cullell s chapter) may be applied to more complicated cases, as are all the other Latin American countries, for various reasons. Furthermore, this learning can be applied not only to whole countries but also to various subnational units.
I must add that this story had a less felicitous continuation in my own country, Argentina. As soon as the Alianza parties won the national elections of 1999, I was invited by vice president Carlos Alvarez to carry out a citizen audit in Argentina. For several reasons I declined to direct the team that would have to be formed but agreed to be a consultant of it. Not long afterward, this incipient project was devoured, as were other more important things, by the chaos, internecine disputes, and utter incompetence of that government.
On the other hand, the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Program (DRALC-UNDP), which had been one of the main supporters of the Costa Rican audit, decided to explore the possibility of extending and adapting it to other countries. DRALC-UNDP invited the Costa Rican team to organize a workshop to discuss the extension of the audit, not only at the national but also at subnational levels. From this initiative resulted a workshop held in Heredia, Costa Rica, in February 2002 on Desarrollo Humano y Calidad de la Democracia en Am rica Latina . Several DRALC-UNDP officers participated in this event, as well as a group of distinguished academics. Vargas Cullell, Guti rrez Saxe, and Evelyn Villarreal contributed a report on the Costa Rican audit that provides the background for Vargas Cullell s chapter in this book. I presented a paper that, after revisions mainly motivated by the comments (also included in this volume) of the academics participating in the workshop, became my chapter in this book. 2
I hope that this brief history helps to make understandable not only the origins of the present volume but also the meaning and limitations of my ow