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Assessing Progress Toward Democracy and Good Governance Summary of a Workshop (1992) / Chapter Skim
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From Theory to Practice
Pages 10-12

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 10...
... Five criteria for measuring progress toward democracy and governance have been developed: freedom of information; freedom of association; human rights with regard to the integrity of the person; public accountability, which includes an independent judiciary; and public-sector efficiency, which includes budget transparency and levels of corruption. Using several sources of information -- for example, State Department country reports, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Africa Watch -- experts evaluate each country independently on the five cnter~a.
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From page 11...
... states: "The Survey attempts to judge all places by a single standard and to point out the importance of democracy and freedom." Political rights are defined as enabling people to participate freeiv in the political process; civil liberties are the freedom to develop views, institutions, and personal autonomy apart from the state. Zarycky summarized the items that are used to assess political rights (for example, fair electoral laws, fair polling, fair campaigning opportunities)
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From page 12...
... More broadly, although a good deal has been learned about the processes of transition away from authoritarian rule, political science has not produced an accepted consensus about how democracies develop nor about their relationship to economic development (see National Research Council, 199Ib; 19921. Moreover, only some of the changes that democratization programs could foster, such as increased voter turnout or reductions in the level of human rights abuses, can be readily quantified.
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Key Terms

  • civil liberties
  • political rights
  • freedom house
  • africa bureau
  • allocation decisions

  • personal security
  • aid programs
  • amnesty international
  • country performance
  • five criteria

  • civil rights
  • development programme
  • nations development
  • issues involved
  • invested considerable

  • department country
  • coppedge discussed
  • five broad
  • threshold level
  • defining gross

  • help aid
  • gross human
  • rights instruments
  • reliable qualitative
  • fair polling

  • regional covenants
  • inevitably plays
  • expect indicators
  • broad changes
  • readily quantified


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