Gerardo Munck | University of Southern California (original) (raw)

Papers by Gerardo Munck

Democratization, 2014

The C&M working paper series are published by the Committee on Concepts and Methods (C&M), the Re... more The C&M working paper series are published by the Committee on Concepts and Methods (C&M), the Research Committee No. 1 of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), hosted at CIDE in Mexico City. C&M working papers are meant to share work in progress in a timely way before formal publication. Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their contributions. All rights reserved. The Committee on Concepts and Methods (C&M) promotes conceptual and methodological discussion in political science. It provides a forum of debate between methodological schools who otherwise tend to conduct their deliberations at separate tables. It publishes two series of working papers: "Political Concepts" and "Political Methodology." Political Concepts contains work of excellence on political concepts and political language. It seeks to include innovative contributions to concept analysis, language usage, concept operationalization, and measurement. Political Methodology contains work of excellence on methods and methodology in the study of politics. It invites innovative work on fundamental questions of research design, the construction and evaluation of empirical evidence, theory building and theory testing. The series welcomes, and hopes to foster, contributions that cut across conventional methodological divides, as between quantitative and qualitative methods, or between interpretative and observational approaches. Submissions. All papers are subject to review by two reviewers, often including one member of the Editorial Board or an external reviewer. Only English-language papers can be admitted. Authors interested in including their work in the C&M Series may send their paper to wp[at]conceptsmethods.org. They may also seek initial endorsement by one editorial board member. The C&M webpage offers full access to past working papers.

Politics in Latin America continued to be about democracy after the democratic transitions in Lat... more Politics in Latin America continued to be about democracy after the democratic transitions in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s. An old concern – securing the minimal standard of democracy that had served as the goal of democratic transitions – remained relevant. But a new concern – the attainment of more than a minimal democracy – transformed politics about democracy. Actors who supported and opposed neoliberalism – the key axis of ideological conflict – advocated and resisted political changes in the name of different models of democracy. And the conflict over which model of democracy would prevail shaped Latin America’s post-transition trajectories, determining how democracy developed and, in turn, whether democracy endured.

This article addresses the links between democracy, understood in minimal procedural terms, and t... more This article addresses the links between democracy, understood in minimal procedural terms, and the state, considered as a political centre that (1) has the monopoly of violence within a territory, (2) rules over a population that shares a sense of nationhood, and (3) delivers public goods other than political order. It considers two perspectives on these state democracy links: one that holds that, to ensure successful democratization and enduring democracy, the construction of a state must be completed before steps are taken to install democracy; another that posits that state construction can be confronted in the course of democratization or through democracy. The article concludes that variants of the proposition “no state, no democracy”, when understood as involving explanatory relationships, have validity, but are only partially true, frequently one-sided – ignoring how democracy affects state-related problems – and excessively pessimistic – overlooking how democracy can offer a solution to state-related problems. Thus, research on the “no state, no democracy” proposition does not support a general prescription to put the state first. As democracy was established as a key basis for the legitimacy of the state throughout the world in the twentieth century, the democracy first thesis gained considerable plausibility.

Works on the quality of democracy propose standards for evaluating politics beyond those encompas... more Works on the quality of democracy propose standards for evaluating politics beyond those encompassed by a minimal definition of democracy. Yet, what is the quality of democracy? This article first reconstructs and assesses current conceptualizations of the quality of democracy. Thereafter, it reconceptualizes the quality of democracy by equating it with democracy pure and simple, positing that democracy is a synthesis of political freedom and political equality, and spelling out the implications of this substantive assumption. The proposal is to broaden the concept of democracy to address two additional spheres: government decision-making – political institutions are democratic inasmuch as a majority of citizens can change the status quo – and the social environment of politics – the social context cannot turn the principles of political freedom and equality into mere formalities. Alternative specifications of democratic standards are considered and reasons for discarding them are provided

Theories of democratic transitions focus mainly on domestic political and economic factors, thoug... more Theories of democratic transitions focus mainly on domestic political and economic factors, though cultural and international factors are also addressed. Many hypotheses have been tested, increasingly using quantitative methods. Yet, the quest for robust positive results has proved elusive. Thus, current knowledge supports a negative funding that there is more than one path to democracy and that democracy can emerge under all sorts of conditions.

The option between democracy and its alternatives has been a central axis of political confl icts... more The option between democracy and its alternatives has been a central axis of political confl icts in Latin America since the early twentieth century. A prelude to these confl icts was the process of state formation, which occupied the center stage of political life in the wake of the attainment of independence by Latin American countries roughly 200 years ago. But, inasmuch as the process of state formation resulted in a recognized center of political power and hence a semblance of political order, the struggle between forces in favor and opposed to subjecting political power to democratic control moved to the fore.

The choice among paths that countries should follow has been a staple of political debates in Lat... more The choice among paths that countries should follow has been a staple of political debates in Latin America and, over the past 40 years, Fernando Cardoso has brought his analysis to bear on these debates. This article summarizes and then assesses Cardoso’s argument about the choice of paths faced by Latin American countries, the consequences for democracy and development of following different paths, and the political position that is supported by this analysis of choices and their consequences. Though Cardoso explicitly supports the path of globalized social democracy over an anti-globalization option in the current period, I suggest that the current state of knowledge does not offer unequivocal support for the argument that choosing to follow the path of globalized social democracy—or that of antiglobalization—is the best political option for all countries in Latin America. Different countries might very well be doing what is best for them, given their circumstances, by following different paths.

This assessment of research on contemporary democratic politics in Latin America is organized aro... more This assessment of research on contemporary democratic politics in Latin America is organized around the distinction between institutional and alternative approaches. Initially it considers institutionalism on its own terms and, through an assessment of the debate about the institutional causes of gridlock, draws attention to key strengths of this literature. Thereafter, this article adopts a broader perspective that exposes some limitations but also other strengths of institutional analyses and considers the possibility of combining insights developed from institutional and alternative theoretical perspectives. The suggested terms of integration are as follows. With regard to causal theorizing, institutionalists need to borrow ideas from a broader literature on political regimes, especially regarding the causes of transitions to, and the breakdown of, democracy. With regard to descriptive theorizing, in contrast, students of the quality of democracy need to incorporate the contributions of institutionalists, especially regarding principal-agent relationships among citizens, policy makers, and policy administrators. Throughout this review, various pointed suggestions to advance research are offered.

Este artículo aborda la vieja pregunta ¿qué es la democracia? a la luz de desarrollos en el pensa... more Este artículo aborda la vieja pregunta ¿qué es la democracia? a la luz de desarrollos en el pensamiento latinoamericano y analiza las tendencias políticas en la región andina durante años recientes desde la perspectiva de la democracia. Se sostiene que la democracia electoral es vista como un mínimo indispensable de la democracia. Pero también se pone énfasis en tres requisitos adicionales que se han propuesto como condiciones necesarias para que una democracia electoral se convierta en una democracia plena: una forma democrática de gobernar, una forma democrática de cambiar la Constitución, y un Estado con poder para proteger los derechos civiles y sociales. Forjar un consenso acerca de esta visión más completa de la democracia es un reto importante del pensamiento latinoamericano sobre la democracia.

Su libro más reciente es Measuring Democracy: A Bridge Between Scholarship and Politics (Johns Ho... more Su libro más reciente es Measuring Democracy: A Bridge Between Scholarship and Politics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). Fue parte del equipo que redactó el informe del Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD), La democracia en América Latina. Hacia una democracia de ciudadanas y ciudadanos (2004), y un segundo informe regional, Nuestra democracia (2010), preparado por el PNUD y la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA).

Palabras clave: gobernabilidad democrática, régimen democrático, Estado de derecho, modelo de des... more Palabras clave: gobernabilidad democrática, régimen democrático, Estado de derecho, modelo de desarrollo, revalorización de la política.

The two cross-national indices with gender-differentiated data introduced by the UNDP in 1995, as... more The two cross-national indices with gender-differentiated data introduced by the UNDP in 1995, as well as several other such indices developed subsequently, are an important resource for researchers and policy makers interested in gender disparities. Yet questions remain regarding how these indices should be interpreted and how valid they are. Relying on a framework that synthesizes key guidelines concerning the methodology of measurement, this article offers an assessment of indices currently used to study gender disparities on a global scale and sheds light on these unresolved questions.We answer two questions—what do these indices with gender-differentiated data actually measure? and, how valid are these indices?—and discuss the implications of our assessment for users and producers of gender indices.

High-quality data on corruption is fundamental both to the analysis of corruption, and the design... more High-quality data on corruption is fundamental both to the analysis of corruption, and the design and assessment of anti-corruption programmes. Thus, a discussion of the methodological issues involved in the measurement of corruption is a central task in work on corruption. This paper contributes to this task by critically assessing the methods currently used to measure corruption and by elaborating a methodology for measuring corruption. The paper considers various definitions of corruption and suggests a consensus has developed regarding a working definition of corruption that can be used in work on measurement. It reviews a large range of methods, with an eye to ascertaining what aspects of the concept of corruption can be adequately measured with available methodologies, and identifies advances in, and persistent challenges to, measurement. It evaluates methods used to produce corruption indices, and discusses the problems entailed in creating indices that allow for cross-country and inter-temporal comparisons. Finally, it suggests how corruption might be measured in light of a concern with human development and the availability of data in Asia and the Pacific.

Este trabajo considera el monitoreo de la democracia y aborda cuatro preguntas: ¿Por qué debe mon... more Este trabajo considera el monitoreo de la democracia y aborda cuatro preguntas: ¿Por qué debe monitorearse la democracia? ¿Quiénes son los monitores? ¿Qué debe monitorearse? Y, ¿cómo debe llevarse a cabo el monitoreo? Primero articula el consenso emergente referido al monitoreo de la democracia. Luego la discusión se vuelca a varios nuevos desafíos que necesitan ser resueltos. Específicamente, el artículo se focaliza en los desafíos de reconocer y balancear múltiples valores políticos, reunir a políticos con investigadores, integrar esfuerzos de monitoreo y solucionar problemas de medición. Se pone énfasis en la importancia de plantear estas temáticas complejas y de profundizar el consenso surgido en referencia al monitoreo de la democracia.

Comparative Political Studies, 2007

Comparative Political Studies, 2007

Ps-political Science & Politics, 2007

Comparative Political Studies, 2002

A comprehensive and integrated framework for the analysis of data is offered and used to assess d... more A comprehensive and integrated framework for the analysis of data is offered and used to assess data sets on democracy. The framework first distinguishes among three challenges that are sequentially addressed: conceptualization, measurement, and aggregation. In turn, it specifies distinct tasks associated with these challenges and the standards of assessment that pertain to each task. This framework is applied to the data sets on democracy most frequently used in current statistical research, generating a systematic evaluation of these data sets. The authors' conclusion is that constructors of democracy indices tend to be quite self-conscious about methodological issues but that even the best indices suffer from important weaknesses. More constructively, the article's assessment of existing data sets on democracy identifies distinct areas in which attempts to improve the quality of data on democracy might fruitfully be focused.

Democratization, 2014

The C&M working paper series are published by the Committee on Concepts and Methods (C&M), the Re... more The C&M working paper series are published by the Committee on Concepts and Methods (C&M), the Research Committee No. 1 of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), hosted at CIDE in Mexico City. C&M working papers are meant to share work in progress in a timely way before formal publication. Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their contributions. All rights reserved. The Committee on Concepts and Methods (C&M) promotes conceptual and methodological discussion in political science. It provides a forum of debate between methodological schools who otherwise tend to conduct their deliberations at separate tables. It publishes two series of working papers: "Political Concepts" and "Political Methodology." Political Concepts contains work of excellence on political concepts and political language. It seeks to include innovative contributions to concept analysis, language usage, concept operationalization, and measurement. Political Methodology contains work of excellence on methods and methodology in the study of politics. It invites innovative work on fundamental questions of research design, the construction and evaluation of empirical evidence, theory building and theory testing. The series welcomes, and hopes to foster, contributions that cut across conventional methodological divides, as between quantitative and qualitative methods, or between interpretative and observational approaches. Submissions. All papers are subject to review by two reviewers, often including one member of the Editorial Board or an external reviewer. Only English-language papers can be admitted. Authors interested in including their work in the C&M Series may send their paper to wp[at]conceptsmethods.org. They may also seek initial endorsement by one editorial board member. The C&M webpage offers full access to past working papers.

Politics in Latin America continued to be about democracy after the democratic transitions in Lat... more Politics in Latin America continued to be about democracy after the democratic transitions in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s. An old concern – securing the minimal standard of democracy that had served as the goal of democratic transitions – remained relevant. But a new concern – the attainment of more than a minimal democracy – transformed politics about democracy. Actors who supported and opposed neoliberalism – the key axis of ideological conflict – advocated and resisted political changes in the name of different models of democracy. And the conflict over which model of democracy would prevail shaped Latin America’s post-transition trajectories, determining how democracy developed and, in turn, whether democracy endured.

This article addresses the links between democracy, understood in minimal procedural terms, and t... more This article addresses the links between democracy, understood in minimal procedural terms, and the state, considered as a political centre that (1) has the monopoly of violence within a territory, (2) rules over a population that shares a sense of nationhood, and (3) delivers public goods other than political order. It considers two perspectives on these state democracy links: one that holds that, to ensure successful democratization and enduring democracy, the construction of a state must be completed before steps are taken to install democracy; another that posits that state construction can be confronted in the course of democratization or through democracy. The article concludes that variants of the proposition “no state, no democracy”, when understood as involving explanatory relationships, have validity, but are only partially true, frequently one-sided – ignoring how democracy affects state-related problems – and excessively pessimistic – overlooking how democracy can offer a solution to state-related problems. Thus, research on the “no state, no democracy” proposition does not support a general prescription to put the state first. As democracy was established as a key basis for the legitimacy of the state throughout the world in the twentieth century, the democracy first thesis gained considerable plausibility.

Works on the quality of democracy propose standards for evaluating politics beyond those encompas... more Works on the quality of democracy propose standards for evaluating politics beyond those encompassed by a minimal definition of democracy. Yet, what is the quality of democracy? This article first reconstructs and assesses current conceptualizations of the quality of democracy. Thereafter, it reconceptualizes the quality of democracy by equating it with democracy pure and simple, positing that democracy is a synthesis of political freedom and political equality, and spelling out the implications of this substantive assumption. The proposal is to broaden the concept of democracy to address two additional spheres: government decision-making – political institutions are democratic inasmuch as a majority of citizens can change the status quo – and the social environment of politics – the social context cannot turn the principles of political freedom and equality into mere formalities. Alternative specifications of democratic standards are considered and reasons for discarding them are provided

Theories of democratic transitions focus mainly on domestic political and economic factors, thoug... more Theories of democratic transitions focus mainly on domestic political and economic factors, though cultural and international factors are also addressed. Many hypotheses have been tested, increasingly using quantitative methods. Yet, the quest for robust positive results has proved elusive. Thus, current knowledge supports a negative funding that there is more than one path to democracy and that democracy can emerge under all sorts of conditions.

The option between democracy and its alternatives has been a central axis of political confl icts... more The option between democracy and its alternatives has been a central axis of political confl icts in Latin America since the early twentieth century. A prelude to these confl icts was the process of state formation, which occupied the center stage of political life in the wake of the attainment of independence by Latin American countries roughly 200 years ago. But, inasmuch as the process of state formation resulted in a recognized center of political power and hence a semblance of political order, the struggle between forces in favor and opposed to subjecting political power to democratic control moved to the fore.

The choice among paths that countries should follow has been a staple of political debates in Lat... more The choice among paths that countries should follow has been a staple of political debates in Latin America and, over the past 40 years, Fernando Cardoso has brought his analysis to bear on these debates. This article summarizes and then assesses Cardoso’s argument about the choice of paths faced by Latin American countries, the consequences for democracy and development of following different paths, and the political position that is supported by this analysis of choices and their consequences. Though Cardoso explicitly supports the path of globalized social democracy over an anti-globalization option in the current period, I suggest that the current state of knowledge does not offer unequivocal support for the argument that choosing to follow the path of globalized social democracy—or that of antiglobalization—is the best political option for all countries in Latin America. Different countries might very well be doing what is best for them, given their circumstances, by following different paths.

This assessment of research on contemporary democratic politics in Latin America is organized aro... more This assessment of research on contemporary democratic politics in Latin America is organized around the distinction between institutional and alternative approaches. Initially it considers institutionalism on its own terms and, through an assessment of the debate about the institutional causes of gridlock, draws attention to key strengths of this literature. Thereafter, this article adopts a broader perspective that exposes some limitations but also other strengths of institutional analyses and considers the possibility of combining insights developed from institutional and alternative theoretical perspectives. The suggested terms of integration are as follows. With regard to causal theorizing, institutionalists need to borrow ideas from a broader literature on political regimes, especially regarding the causes of transitions to, and the breakdown of, democracy. With regard to descriptive theorizing, in contrast, students of the quality of democracy need to incorporate the contributions of institutionalists, especially regarding principal-agent relationships among citizens, policy makers, and policy administrators. Throughout this review, various pointed suggestions to advance research are offered.

Este artículo aborda la vieja pregunta ¿qué es la democracia? a la luz de desarrollos en el pensa... more Este artículo aborda la vieja pregunta ¿qué es la democracia? a la luz de desarrollos en el pensamiento latinoamericano y analiza las tendencias políticas en la región andina durante años recientes desde la perspectiva de la democracia. Se sostiene que la democracia electoral es vista como un mínimo indispensable de la democracia. Pero también se pone énfasis en tres requisitos adicionales que se han propuesto como condiciones necesarias para que una democracia electoral se convierta en una democracia plena: una forma democrática de gobernar, una forma democrática de cambiar la Constitución, y un Estado con poder para proteger los derechos civiles y sociales. Forjar un consenso acerca de esta visión más completa de la democracia es un reto importante del pensamiento latinoamericano sobre la democracia.

Su libro más reciente es Measuring Democracy: A Bridge Between Scholarship and Politics (Johns Ho... more Su libro más reciente es Measuring Democracy: A Bridge Between Scholarship and Politics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). Fue parte del equipo que redactó el informe del Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD), La democracia en América Latina. Hacia una democracia de ciudadanas y ciudadanos (2004), y un segundo informe regional, Nuestra democracia (2010), preparado por el PNUD y la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA).

Palabras clave: gobernabilidad democrática, régimen democrático, Estado de derecho, modelo de des... more Palabras clave: gobernabilidad democrática, régimen democrático, Estado de derecho, modelo de desarrollo, revalorización de la política.

The two cross-national indices with gender-differentiated data introduced by the UNDP in 1995, as... more The two cross-national indices with gender-differentiated data introduced by the UNDP in 1995, as well as several other such indices developed subsequently, are an important resource for researchers and policy makers interested in gender disparities. Yet questions remain regarding how these indices should be interpreted and how valid they are. Relying on a framework that synthesizes key guidelines concerning the methodology of measurement, this article offers an assessment of indices currently used to study gender disparities on a global scale and sheds light on these unresolved questions.We answer two questions—what do these indices with gender-differentiated data actually measure? and, how valid are these indices?—and discuss the implications of our assessment for users and producers of gender indices.

High-quality data on corruption is fundamental both to the analysis of corruption, and the design... more High-quality data on corruption is fundamental both to the analysis of corruption, and the design and assessment of anti-corruption programmes. Thus, a discussion of the methodological issues involved in the measurement of corruption is a central task in work on corruption. This paper contributes to this task by critically assessing the methods currently used to measure corruption and by elaborating a methodology for measuring corruption. The paper considers various definitions of corruption and suggests a consensus has developed regarding a working definition of corruption that can be used in work on measurement. It reviews a large range of methods, with an eye to ascertaining what aspects of the concept of corruption can be adequately measured with available methodologies, and identifies advances in, and persistent challenges to, measurement. It evaluates methods used to produce corruption indices, and discusses the problems entailed in creating indices that allow for cross-country and inter-temporal comparisons. Finally, it suggests how corruption might be measured in light of a concern with human development and the availability of data in Asia and the Pacific.

Este trabajo considera el monitoreo de la democracia y aborda cuatro preguntas: ¿Por qué debe mon... more Este trabajo considera el monitoreo de la democracia y aborda cuatro preguntas: ¿Por qué debe monitorearse la democracia? ¿Quiénes son los monitores? ¿Qué debe monitorearse? Y, ¿cómo debe llevarse a cabo el monitoreo? Primero articula el consenso emergente referido al monitoreo de la democracia. Luego la discusión se vuelca a varios nuevos desafíos que necesitan ser resueltos. Específicamente, el artículo se focaliza en los desafíos de reconocer y balancear múltiples valores políticos, reunir a políticos con investigadores, integrar esfuerzos de monitoreo y solucionar problemas de medición. Se pone énfasis en la importancia de plantear estas temáticas complejas y de profundizar el consenso surgido en referencia al monitoreo de la democracia.

Comparative Political Studies, 2007

Comparative Political Studies, 2007

Ps-political Science & Politics, 2007

Comparative Political Studies, 2002

A comprehensive and integrated framework for the analysis of data is offered and used to assess d... more A comprehensive and integrated framework for the analysis of data is offered and used to assess data sets on democracy. The framework first distinguishes among three challenges that are sequentially addressed: conceptualization, measurement, and aggregation. In turn, it specifies distinct tasks associated with these challenges and the standards of assessment that pertain to each task. This framework is applied to the data sets on democracy most frequently used in current statistical research, generating a systematic evaluation of these data sets. The authors' conclusion is that constructors of democracy indices tend to be quite self-conscious about methodological issues but that even the best indices suffer from important weaknesses. More constructively, the article's assessment of existing data sets on democracy identifies distinct areas in which attempts to improve the quality of data on democracy might fruitfully be focused.