Democraticness

Because it appears so obvious to us that the exclusion of certain categories of people does not in any degree affect the democraticness of a political system, we feel it incumbent on us to include a reference to ‘justifiable exclusions’ in our definition of democracy.

In summary: the cross-national analysis of factors promoting pluralism and polyarchy demonstrates (ceteris paribus) that favourable economic conditions and high(er) levels of human development are incentives for achieving higher levels of democraticness. However, like political factors, they are not crucial per se, nor functional under all circumstances. It appears rather that the interplay of these factors benefits further democratization and may well enhance the level of democraticness of a nation.

Finally, we find that more hierarchically organized political systems, kings, and chiefs, as well as those organized in segments, are on average less democratic, while the presence of elders is associated with higher levels of democraticness.