Post war transitions to democracy

Assignment 6: Post-Cold War Transitions to Democracy

Submit the assignment to Brightspace

Instructions:

This assignment is to be completed after you have finished the readings on “Democratization.” In addition, it is important that you start gathering outside resources to conduct research on your two African countries. This can include books from the library and online materials (journal articles, databases, credited news sources). Wikipedia is not a credible source, but can be used as starting point to springboard your research. A great place to start your search is Google scholar.

As always, please use full sentences in your answers and include full citations of where your answers are coming from. When the assignment is completed, submit a word document, before the beginning of class, to the proper Brightspace assignment folder. The name of the file should include your last name (e.g. Assignment5_Osorio.docx). Be prepared to discuss your findings during the class discussion.

Questions:

Q1. Using Chapter 1 of Bratton and van de Walle, name two characteristics and two limitations for the following approaches to explaining democratization:

• Structural approaches
• Contingent approaches
• International approaches
• Domestic approaches
• Economic approaches
• Political approaches
• Politico-institutional approaches

Q2. Using Chapter 3 of Bratton and van de Walle, describe the path of regime transition in your two countries. According the classifications on page 119, what path did your countries take to regime transition in the period ending in 1994? Make use of Figure 6 on page 117 and outside resources to describe the different factors that happened in each country’s transition (political protests, liberalization reforms, democratic elections, constitutional reforms, political reforms).

*Table 4 on page 120 might be helpful.

Q3. Did the regime type switch at all between the Cold War end and the present (e.g. a democracy to a dictatorship or vice versa)? Were there ever periods where one regime did not rule the whole country (e.g. civil war/warlordism) for the time period 1989-current?

Use the https://www.v-dem.net/en/analysis/analysis/ website and create a country graph for each of your two countries (two graphs in total) that plots the 5 indices of democracy: deliberative, egalitarian, electoral, liberal, and participatory. Using your knowledge on each country explain what might be driving the dips and rises you see in the graphs.

Instructions:

• Click on “Country Graph”
• Click on “Search Countries” and select your country
• Click on “V-Dem Indices” and select the 5 indices of democracy: deliberative, egalitarian, electoral, liberal, and participatory.
• Make sure the scale of the graph is set to “Original Scale”
• Make sure confidence rating is NOT showing
• Click generate graph
• Click the export button at the top right of the graph (next to print button)
• Attach the graphs to your assignment word document
• Repeat these instructions for your second country

Q4. Using V-Dem data, construct a graph comparing the “Clean Elections Index,” in your two countries for the time period 1989-current. Explain what you see on this graph. Using your knowledge on each country explain what might be driving the dips and rises you see in the graphs.

Ex.

Instructions:

Click on this link to the V-Dem Website: https://v-dem.net/en/

Click on the analysis (online analysis tab)

Click variable graph

• Select your countries
• Click V-Dem Indices
• Search for “Clean Elections Index”
• Make sure the scale of the graph is set to “Original Scale”
• Make sure confidence rating is NOT showing
• Make sure you change the date range to 1989-current
• Click generate graph
• Click the export button at the top right of the graph (next to print button)
• Attach the graphs to your assignment word document
• Repeat these instructions for both countries

Q5. Using the Afrobarometer’s Round 6 data, explore the public opinion regarding democracy. Write a paragraph for each of your countries (you don’t need to attach a graph, but to report the statistics) describing the opinions of the citizens of your countries, current and their evolution over time, regarding:

1. rejecting one-party rule
2. rejecting military rule
3. rejecting one-man rule
4. support for democracy

Instructions:

• • Click on this link to the Afrobarometer’s online data analysis Website:http://afrobarometer.org/online-data-analysis/analyse-online
  • Click on Round 6 (R6 2014/2015). To check if your countries’ information is available, type the name of your country on the “Search questions” box. If one or both of their countries is not included in R6, please explore the data available for Africa as a whole in R6.
  • Click on the “Democracy and politics” tab. There you will find the variables regarding rejecting one-party rule, rejecting military rule, rejecting one-man rule and support for democracy
  • Click on your country.
  • To filter by urban/rural, click on “Add filter” and choose “Urban or rural”
  • Repeat the instructions to explore every variable for both of your countries.