The Quality of Democracy
Why the Rule of Law Matters
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6287923 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Guillermo O’donnell (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 32-46 |
| Publication date | 2004-10-01 |
| 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.2004.0076 |
| OpenAlex | W2128373942 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 210 |
| References cited | 8 |
High-quality democracy requires a truly democratic rule of law that ensures political rights, civil liberties, and mechanisms of accountability which in turn affirm the political equality of all citizens and constrain potential abuses of state power. How may the democratic rule of law ( état de droit, estado democrático de derecho, Rechsstaat ) be conceptualized and, insofar as possible, empirically gauged? By exploring a set of variables within the rule of law we can understand what makes it effective and how it relates to other aspects of the performance of democratic countries. This essay focuses on contemporary Latin America (especially Argentina and Brazil) where national-level democratic regimes often effectively coexist with undemocratic sub-national regimes—so-called “brown areas
Accountability · Civil liberties · Democracy · Latin Americans · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Quality (philosophy · Rule of law · Sociology · State (computer science · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Politics and Society in Latin America
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| Unique citing works | 210 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,75 |
| Citation span | 1970 - 2026 (57) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 206 |