Measuring Democracy in Mexico. Merits and Demerits of the Freedom House Index and Przeworski¿s Regime Classification

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - Methods, Research, grade: 2,67, Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH, language: English, abstract: This paper applies and discusses the merits and demerits of two different measures of democracy, the Freedom House Index and Przeworski's regime classification, that is, the updated version by Cheibub et al. (2010), with regard to Mexico between 1972 and 2010. First, I explain the nature and functionality of the two measures, and then I look at the development of democracy in Mexico and its evaluation by Przeworski and Freedom House, pointing out similarities and differences and their causes. Finally I conclude which of the two measures seems to be more appropriate for the specific case of Mexico and why.