Політологічний аналіз основних методик вимірювання рівня демократії у світі

Abstract

Розглянуто проблему вимірювання рівня демократичності політичного режиму країн світу. Проаналізовано як авторські підходи до визначення рівня демократії у світі, так і підходи та проекти міжнародних наукових та громадських установ. The problem of indexing with its important role in the study of democracy is emphasized which enables formalized approach to democracy and allows evaluating efficiency of political system transformation . The methodological approaches to indexing democracy are considered. Both the author’s approaches to determining the level of democracy in the world (the Ph. Cutright Index of Political Democracy, the K. Bollen Index of Political Democracy, the K. Herpfer Democracy Index) and approaches and projects of international scientific and public institutions (The Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index, the Freedom House project “Nations in Transit”, the Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index, the Index of Democratization created by scientists of the University of Helsinki led by T. Vanhanen, the “Political atlas of modernity” project carried out by the Moscow State Institute of International Relations led by A. Melville, approach to the development of criteria for a democratic regime by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). Each of the approaches to defining of democracy was subjected to qualitative assessment, their positive and negative aspects, efficiency and level of results reliability were shown. The important role which democratic elections play in each of the methods of indexing democratic political regime was emphasized. It is assumed that formalized approach to democracy and determining its level can be applied to its attributive elements, in particular, to the institute of elections. This enables development of methodology for determining the democratic level of elections which is extremelly important since Ukrainian political science lacks such a methodology.