POLS 071 Chapter Notes - Chapter March 7th and 19th: Civil Society, Authoritarianism
23 Mar 2019
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Developed a measure of legislative strength called the ppi: freedom house scores used to measure democratization. Strong correlation between strong democracies and strong legislatures, but it was unclear which way causation went: theorized the extent of democratization at the time of the constitution taking effect could affect the strength of the legislature. This correlation was very weak, and the powers of the legislature are not what would be expected if democratization were the cause. The power of legislatures (of constitutions established between 1980 and the mid-1990s) predicts levels of democratization in the mid-2000s. A weak legislature will not be able to stop presidential abuses of power: legislative weakness also undermines the development of political parties. Strength of national legislature could be the key determining factor for democratization: results showed that failing to build a strong legislature during post-communist period was a sufficient condition for authoritarianism 10-15 years later.
