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In the past two years, Ukraine has held new elections for both its parliament & president. Some might claim that these elections are evidence of democratic progress. However, elections are only a necessary, not sufficient component of democracy, & to make judgements about democratic consolidation solely on the basis of elections is to fall victim to the fallacy of "electoralism." While it is true that Ukraine does possess an electoral democracy, democratic consolidation remains elusive & is susceptible to a variety of problems. These include a weak civil society & weak political parties, regional divisions, unstable political institutions, & a lack of the rule of law. By some measures, Ukraine may even have regressed from 1994, as an oligarchy has consolidated itself & authoritarian trends are readily discernible. 2 Tables. Adapted from the source document.

Recent years have seen an efflorescence of work focused on the definition and operationalization of democracy. One debate concerns whether democracy is best measured by binary or graded scales. Critics of binary indices point out at that they are overly reductionist, while defenders counter that the different levels of graded measures are not associated with a specific set of conditions. Against this backdrop, we propose to operationalize electoral democracy as a series of necessary and sufficient conditions arrayed in an ordinal scale. The resulting "lexical" index of electoral democracy, based partly on new data, covers all independent countries of the world from 1800 to 2013. It incorporates binary coding of its subcomponents, which are aggregated into an ordinal scale using a cumulative logic. In this fashion, we arrive at an index that performs a classificatory function—each level identifies a unique and theoretically meaningful regime-type—as well as a discriminating function.

Mexico provides significant insight into the modern challenges being faced by many electoral democracies as they strive to become liberal democracies. Based on the 2012 presidential election and subsequent contests, this paper analyzes two problems that have been remarkably enduring: illegal financing and vote buying. I document how deeply entrenched in the political culture they remain with recent corruption scandals in the states of Tabasco and Veracruz. The critical electoral reforms of 2014 are explained and assessed, concluding that they fall short of solving such problems. I propose that deeper measures strengthening the rule of law, especially at the subnational level, would be more effective. ; México como caso de estudio puede iluminar los retos modernos que enfrentan muchas democracias electorales en su esfuerzo por convertirse en democracias liberales. Basado en las elecciones federales de 2012 y en contiendas subsecuentes, este ensayo analiza dos problemas que han sido notoriamente duraderos: el financiamiento ilegal y la compra de votos. Mediante escándalos recientes en los Estados de Tabasco y Veracruz, documento cuan arraigados están estos dos problemas en la cultura política. El ensayo explica y evalúa las importantes reformas electorales de 2014, llegando a la conclusión de que son insuficientes para resolver dichos problemas. Sugiero que sería más efectivo implementar un paquete comprensivo de medidas que refuercen el estado de derecho, sobre todo a nivel subnacional.

Two sides of the debate on Indonesia's future turn on the tension between sustained economic growth fueled by demand for Indonesia's natural resources and the highly skewed distribution of wealth. With the Indonesia boosters forecasting a vertiginous rise of Southeast Asia's largest economy, the naysayers point to the deadweights of corruption, lack of transparency, and poor governance. With democratic electoralism revived in a post-authoritarian setting, such issues can no longer be swept under the carpet: they are matched by a relatively open media and burgeoning civil society.