The Meanings of Democracy
Anchoring the "D-Word" in Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6286283 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Bratton (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 106-113 |
| Publication date | 2010-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of democracy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1045-5736 • E-ISSN: 1086-3214 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/jod.2010.0006 |
| OpenAlex | W2006711876 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 50 |
| References cited | 9 |
Differences in popular understandings of the word "democracy" across continents, countries, social groups and individuals pose serious challenges of conceptual equivalence and content validity for comparative survey researchers. This article explores the pros and cons of three potential solutions tried by the Afrobarometer: an open-ended question on the meaning of the "D-word", a set of questions about core democratic institutions, and an innovative method of "anchoring" popular understandings by means of a scale of hypothetical vignettes about a variety of political regimes with differing degrees of democracy
Anchoring · Cognitive science · Linguistics · Political science · Word (group theory · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Philosophy · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology
Hydrocarbon Citizens
Making Sense of the News in a Hybrid Regime
For Better or Worse? Gender and Perceptions of Formal and Informal Justice Systems in Afghanistan
Partisanship, party systems, and understandings of democracy across Africa
Reassessing the cultural foundation of democracy after the third wave of democratisation
“For me democracy is …” meanings of democracy from a phenomenological perspective
Measuring meanings of democracy—methods of differentiation
Challenges in conceptualizing and measuring meanings and understandings of democracy
Configurations of democracy—empirical and methodological insights from a comparison of Singapore, Ghana, and Ireland
Liberal democracy as the end of history
Democratising the Measurement of Democratic Quality
Confucian Culture and Democratic Values
Institutions, crises, and political confidence in seven contemporary democracies. An elite–mass analysis
The influence of interviewer characteristics on support for democracy and political engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa
There and back again
Ideology Through the Partisan Lens
A Hard Test of Individual Heterogeneity in Response Scale Usage
Ideals Without Institutions
Polarized Attitudes and Anti-Democratic Orientation
How the Chinese people understand democracy
Public Support of Free Speech Limitations in Taiwan
Narrative and elucidating the concept of democracy
Assessing the Use of Intuitions in Contemporary Political Theory
Should Researchers Abandon Questions about “Democracy
Pinning Down Democracy
Decolonising quantitative research methods pedagogy
Is the Left-Right Scale a Valid Measure of Ideology
What does “Political” Mean to You
Who Is Open to Authoritarian Governance within Western Democracies
Under the Veil of Democracy
Is the American Public Really Turning Away from Democracy? Backsliding and the Conceptual Challenges of Understanding Public Attitudes
How Global Citizenries Think about Democracy
Regime types and winner-loser Gaps in support for democracy in East Asia
Does China’s middle class prefer (liberal) democracy
Popular understanding of democracy in contemporary China
Conceptualizing and Measuring Support for Democracy
The ‘Born Frees
Democratic ‘freedom’ in Myanmar
Anchoring Vignettes as a Diagnostic Tool for Cross-National (in)Comparability of Survey Measures
The Influence of Islamic Orientations on Democratic Support and Tolerance in five Arab Countries
Voices from within
Conviction of Multiparty Competition and Elections among Chinese College Students
Making sense of citizen desire for IO democracy
Digital News and Political Tweets in the Lower Austrian Municipal Elections
When Do South Koreans Support Government Restrictions on Media? The Roles of Partisanship and Democratic Support
In the Mood for Democracy? Democratic Support as Thermostatic Opinion
Migration, risk attitudes, and entrepreneurship
Uncoupling Conceptual Understandings and Political Preferences
The Meanings of Democracy among Mass Publics
Democracy-Assessment in Cross-National Surveys
Democracy and Its Alternatives
Comparing Incomparable Survey Responses
Improving Anchoring Vignettes
Democracy and Liberty
Democracy as a Universal Value
Understanding Democracy
The Globalization of Public Opinion Research
Enhancing the Validity and Cross-Cultural Comparability of Measurement in Survey Research
Cross-cutting Cleavages and Ethnic Voting
| Unique citing works | 50 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,57 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2026 (15) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 49 |