Democracy in East and Southeast Asia
Using similar methods as Burkhart and Lewis-Beck, Vanhanen (1997) seeks to
predict the expected level of democracy in specific countries and regions of the
world based on their distribution of 'power resources'. Democracy is measured by a
combination of the smallest parties' share of the vote and the percentage turnout
(ibid.: 35). The distribution of power resources is measured by an index that
combines the urban population, the non-agricultural population, proportion of
students, the size of the literate population, the number of family farms, and the
degree of decentralization of non-agricultural economic resources (Vanhanen
1997: 59-60). By examining the relationship between the level of democracy and
the distribution of power resources from 1850-1993, Vanhanen compares the
actual 1993 values of democracy to those that were predicted using regression
analysis. Figure 1.4 shows the actual and predicted values of democracy for sixteen