An Introduction to the Conceptualization of Democracy and Democratization

Abstract

This article aims to provide a snapshot of how democracy and democratization have been conceptualized and understood in comparative politics through two content areas. First, with a succinct summary of the various approaches which scholars have taken to define and measure democracy, light is shed on the difficulty in guarding the minimalist components of democracy from the risks of “definitional gerrymandering” and “epistemological anarchism.” Second, with a brief overview of the existing studies around the various forms of modernization theory, attention is called to the continuous refinement of methodological design to account for potential contextual and local nuances and the necessity of applying robustness and causality checks to validate statistical results.

Keywords: Democracy, Democratization