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initiated
an international program to compare the quality of democratic governance
in terms of human rights, free and fair elections, and rule by the will
of the people.10
All of these assessments attempt to determine how well political regimes
perform as democracies rather than as liberal democracies. As a consequence,
none of the efforts noted above offer a comprehensive and balanced assessment
of the democracies’ performances as liberal democracies, which feature
political
freedom, citizen equality, accountability of popularly elected leaders
to the electorate,
the rule of law, and responsiveness of political leaders and governmental
officials to the mass citizenry. How much progress did third-wave democracies
make in their march toward liberal democracy? What particular properties
or
qualities of liberal democracy do they most lack? To address these and
other
related questions, this study of Korea offers and tests a model for assessing
liberal
democratic development from the perspective of ordinary citizens.
Conceptualization and Measurement
Universal adult suffrage, free and fair elections, multiparty competition,
and inter-party alternation in power are the most fundamental characteristics
of
all democracies.11 The successful establishment of these democratic
institutions
alone, however, does not guarantee the creation of liberal democracy.
It merely
creates electoral democracy, a regime that allows the citizens to take
part in free
and competitive electoral contests. What more has to be done in order
to transform
an electoral democracy into a liberal democracy? What distinguishes liberal
democracy from illiberal democracy? What are the distinguishing characteristics
of liberal democracy? What are its relative merits and demerits? These questions
have been extensively debated in the theoretical and empirical literature
on third-wave democracies.12
Conceptually, this study of new democracies in Korea and Taiwan is
based on the notion of democracy as a developmental phenomenon.13
Specifically, it is viewed as a phenomenon that evolves multi-dimensionally
in
phases over time.14 In the first phase, nondemocratic rule
gives way to an electoral
democracy featuring free, fair, and competitive elections. In the second
. . . . . /continued
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10 www.gallup-international.com
11. Huntington, 1991; Przeworski et al., 2000.
12. Diamond, 1999; Kratnycky, 1999; O’Donnell, 1996, 1999b; Plattner, 1997;
Zakaria, 1997;
2003.
13. Sklar, 1987.
14. Dahl, 1971; Diamond, 2003; Rose and Shin, 2001. |
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