School of Politics & International Relations
Online Only Coursework Coversheet 2016/17
Student ID Number:
Module Code:
Module Title: Introduction to Comparative Politics
Seminar Tutor: Dr Helen Williams
Word Count: 1632
Disability Disclosure
☐ I am registered as dyslexic with the Study Support Centre who may have made recommendations to the School for reasonable adjustments in the academic environment
☐ I am registered with the Study Support Centre for a disability other than dyslexia
To what extent do economic and cultural factors explain differences in the quality of democracy?
In the 20th and 21st Centuries there has been significant growth in democracy, with most regions experiencing significant democratization …show more content…
Libya, Tunisia and Algeria are all anocracies which feature inherent political instability as well as a mix of both democratic and autocratic traits. Most obviously, all three countries are geographically situated in the North of Africa, and all neighbour each other. In terms of demographic, they also have similar ethnic groups, with 99% Arab-Berber in Algeria, 98% Arab in Tunisia and 97% Arab-Berber in Libya. Their shared religion is Islam (predominantly the Sunni denomination) and they are also all Arabic-speaking. Moreover, the three countries have relatively high levels of literacy at 80%, 81% and 91% for Algeria, Tunisia and Libya respectively. All three countries however, have different qualities of democracy. These are just some of the features which make Tunisia, Algeria and Libya suitable for an MSSD comparison, which involves systems that share a range of similarities, with a different …show more content…
To measure this dependent variable I am using the Polity IV system which is a long-time series of measurement with annual observations. It is an ordinal measure which ranges from -10 to +10. A lower value in this measure indicates a dictatorship and a higher value indicates a democracy. This is an effective means of measurement as it consists of multiple component measures and provides a single regime
Online Only Coursework Coversheet 2016/17
Student ID Number:
Module Code:
Module Title: Introduction to Comparative Politics
Seminar Tutor: Dr Helen Williams
Word Count: 1632
Disability Disclosure
☐ I am registered as dyslexic with the Study Support Centre who may have made recommendations to the School for reasonable adjustments in the academic environment
☐ I am registered with the Study Support Centre for a disability other than dyslexia
To what extent do economic and cultural factors explain differences in the quality of democracy?
In the 20th and 21st Centuries there has been significant growth in democracy, with most regions experiencing significant democratization …show more content…
Libya, Tunisia and Algeria are all anocracies which feature inherent political instability as well as a mix of both democratic and autocratic traits. Most obviously, all three countries are geographically situated in the North of Africa, and all neighbour each other. In terms of demographic, they also have similar ethnic groups, with 99% Arab-Berber in Algeria, 98% Arab in Tunisia and 97% Arab-Berber in Libya. Their shared religion is Islam (predominantly the Sunni denomination) and they are also all Arabic-speaking. Moreover, the three countries have relatively high levels of literacy at 80%, 81% and 91% for Algeria, Tunisia and Libya respectively. All three countries however, have different qualities of democracy. These are just some of the features which make Tunisia, Algeria and Libya suitable for an MSSD comparison, which involves systems that share a range of similarities, with a different …show more content…
To measure this dependent variable I am using the Polity IV system which is a long-time series of measurement with annual observations. It is an ordinal measure which ranges from -10 to +10. A lower value in this measure indicates a dictatorship and a higher value indicates a democracy. This is an effective means of measurement as it consists of multiple component measures and provides a single regime