Browsing by Author "Altman, David"
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- ItemAdjusting democracy indices to the age of mass migration: voting rights of denizens and expats(2022) Altman, DavidThanks Contemporary migration flows affect virtually all aspects of the social fabric, democracy included. Focused on the competitiveness aspects of the regime, comparative measurements of democracy have underestimated the complexity of the Dahlian dimension of inclusiveness, a sine qua non for defining a polyarchy. This measurement paper proposes a new index of inclusiveness: Electoral Residential Inclusiveness. This measure, an alternative to the most frequently used ethnonational ones, assesses the size of the overlap between those who make the law and those who are subject to it. It is shown how some regimes-including some typically considered strong democracies-exhibit such a considerable gap between these two groups that their democratic credentials could be questioned. Regardless of the new metric's efficacy, one implication of this research is that measures of democracy need to be explicit about the complex normative decisions on how we conceptualize, measure, and aggregate the inclusiveness dimension of polyarchy.
- ItemBringing Direct Democracy Back In : Toward a Three Dimensional Measure of Democracy(2013) Altman, David
- ItemCabinet determinants of structural reforms in Latin America, 1985-2000(WILEY, 2008) Altman, David; Castiglioni, RossanaLittle research has been devoted to the analysis of how different characteristics of the executives affect structural reforms. This article analyzes the impact of cabinet fragmentation and the presidential ideological position on the scope of structural reforms in nine Latin American presidential democracies of the postauthoritarian period. In so doing, it treats cabinets as conglomerates of actors that are accountable both to the president and to their parties, with nonpartisan ministers being only accountable to the president. It shows that the higher the percentage of nonpartisan ministers, the lesser the costs associated with bargaining a reform within the executive. When presidents build governing coalitions, they limit their capacity of acting unilaterally. However, they are better able to advance their structural reform proposals than single-party governments are. Data on cabinet composition were collected by the authors and data on the dependent variable structural reform comes from Lora (2001).
- ItemChecking Executive Personalism : Collegial Governments and the Level of Democracy(2020) Altman, David
- ItemCitizens' Stability of Electoral Preferences in Chile Since the Social Upheaval(2024) Altman, David; Diaz, Juan; Engel, Eduardo; Pena, BenjaminA strong oscillation of electoral preferences took place in Chile between the election of the members of the Constitutional Convention in May 2021 and the election of the members of the Constitutional Council in May 2023. This is surprising because, until the national-scale social uprising in 2019, there was a broad consensus that Chile was a highly institutionalised party system where political preferences tended to be stable. In this research note, we study how the electoral choices made by citizens shifted between both elections, using the ecological inference approach based on a Bayesian hierarchical model developed elsewhere. We find that a vast majority of the new voters that resulted from the compulsory voting policy implemented between both elections opted for centre-right to right-wing candidates. However, this evidence is insufficient to determine whether these new voters predominantly align with right-leaning ideologies or hold anti-systemic viewpoints.
- ItemCivic disaffection, theological polarization and quality of democracy: An introduction to the Latin American political yearbook(PONTIFICIA UNIV CATOLICA CHILE, INST CIENCIA POLITICA, 2007) Altman, David; Pablo Luna, JuanThe year 2006 was marked by extraordinary electoral activity all over the continent. This year has also shown a higher than normal level of conflict between countries, amounting in some cases to serious diplomatic friction. In addition, there were evident domestic problems touching almost every country: enduring deficits of human development despite an economic expansion, the systematic exclusion of important social groups from the political arena, and an increasing level of political disaffection among the population as a whole. Some countries were paralyzed by conflicts and stalemates between the branches of government, and in a broader sense, serious shortcomings have been observed in respect to "democratic governability". Although democracy is firmly in place in most of the continent and elections are the main vehicle for selecting governments, we are now facing problems to which, years ago and for understandable reasons, political scientists did not give sufficient attention. The political reality of the region has become so fluid and the new challenges are so varied and significant, that an annual comparative chronicle on the political processes lived by each country constitutes, to our understanding, a fundamental and necessary tool for research. This article is meant to offer an introduction to this Political Data Yearbook of Latin America.
- ItemCollegiate Executives and Direct Democracy in Switzerland and Uruguay: Similar Institutions, Opposite Political Goals, Distinct Results(WILEY, 2008) Altman, DavidUruguay, defining itself as the "Switzerland of Latin America", took the Swiss model (collegial executives and direct democracy) as an example when building its own political institutions. Despite the similarities of these institutions, the results were quite different due to the different context. The comparison between the institutions in these two isolated countries highlights the ways in which the same institutions mall, produce different results and evolve in distinctive ways. This is important to recognize as foreign models and experiences continue to inspire policies. Contrary to common arguments presented in the literature, even in such a "most likely case", institutions cannot simply be copied Institutional effects are context-dependent and we need to pay attention to this interaction. This article provides new evidence showing that universalist institutional arguments can be misleading.
- ItemConceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: A New Approach(CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2011) Coppedge, Michael; Gerring, John; Altman, David; Bernhard, Michael; Fish, Steven; Hicken, Allen; Kroenig, Matthew; Lindberg, Staffan I.; McMann, Kelly; Paxton, Pamela; Semetko, Holli A.; Skaaning, Svend Erik; Staton, Jeffrey; Teorell, JanIn the wake of the Cold War, democracy has gained the status of a mantra. Yet there is no consensus about how to conceptualize and measure regimes such that meaningful comparisons can be made through time and across countries. In this prescriptive article, we argue for a new approach to conceptualization and measurement. We first review some of the weaknesses among traditional approaches. We then lay out our approach, which may be characterized as historical, multidimensional, disaggregated, and transparent. We end by reviewing some of the payoffs such an approach might bring to the study of democracy.
- ItemContinuidades, cambios y desafíos democráticos en Chile (2006-2009)(2006) Altman, David
- ItemDemocratic Institutions and Subjective Well-Being(2017) Altman, David; Flavin, P.; Radcliff, B.
- ItemDemocratic Quality and Human Development in Latin America: 1972-2001(WILFRID LAURIER UNIV PRESS, 2009) Altman, David; Castiglioni, RossanaThis paper analyzes the connection between democracy and human development. In so doing, it examines two main questions: Are democracies better than non-democracies in achieving human development? Among democracies, is there a direct relationship between the actualization of civil and political rights and human development? In answering these questions, we offer a cross-national study of 18 Latin American countries front 1972 to 2001. We use fixed effect models for analyzing out, cross-country, pooled time-series data. The evidence suggests not only that democracies are better than nondemocracies in fostering human development (controlling for wealth), but also that differences in degree of democracy have a significant impact on human development in terms of infant mortality and life expectancy.
- ItemDeterminants of Equitable Social Policy in Latin America (1990-2013)(Cambridge University Press, 2020) Altman, David; Castiglioni, RossanaThe fact that equitable social policy expanded drastically in Latin America during the left turn and during a time of prosperity does not necessarily mean that the ideological color of governing parties and economic growth are the engines behind changes in social policy, as is usually claimed by part of the literature. Using panel data from Latin American countries for 1990-2013, this paper offers an alternative explanation, derived from previous qualitative research, that the level of political competition, the strength of civil society, and wealth are the key factors behind the expansion of equitable social policy. Once these explanations are included in our models, the ideological leaning of governments and economic growth lose statistical significance. Thus, this paper challenges dominant approaches that consider social policy change in Latin America a consequence of the ideological leaning of the government and economic growth.
- ItemDirect democracy(Edward Elgar, 2024) Altman, David
- ItemElección directa de Consejeros Regionales : ¿Remedio o placebo? : análisis del proyecto de ley que establece la elección directa de los Consejeros Regionales (Boletín 7923-06)(Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Centro de Políticas Públicas, 2011) Altman, David; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
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- ItemPartidos y sistemas de partidos en América Latina: aproximaciones desde la encuesta a expertos 2009(2009) Altman, David; Luna, Juan Pablo; Piñeiro, Rafael; Toro Maureira, Sergio