Participation and Democracy: Dynamics, Causes ... - Jacobs University

Table 9-1:
Zero-Order and Partial Correlation: Elite-Challenging Activities and
Democracy
Level of participation in elitechallenging
activities (earliest available
survey, WVS II-III, 1990-1997)
1 controlled for Freedom House 1982-87
2 controlled for Control of Corruption 1996-98
Zero-Order
Correlation
Freedom House
2001-2006
Partial
Correlation 1
Control of Corruption
Zero-Order
Correlation
2002-2006
Partial
Correlation 2
.50*** .34*** .70*** .34**
N = 59 N = 59
Table 9-1 contrasts the (zero-order) correlation effects with the partial correlation effects.
Zero-order effects mean that the level of participation precedes the measures from
Freedom House and the World Bank. The partial correlation does not only account for
the temporal order of the two variables, but also controls for previous stages of
democracy or absence of corruption.
As one would expect when assuming the relation between participation and democracy to
be circular, the impact of elite-challenging activities on democracy decreases once one
accounts for the temporal autocorrelation of the democracy and corruption measure. The
correlation drops because elite-challenging actions are themselves partially depending on
prior measures of democracy and corruption and when one takes this partial dependence
into account, the remaining independent part of elite-challenging actions shows a
considerably weaker effect on subsequent democracy and corruption. However, the effect
remains fully significant and continues to show a considerable magnitude. In part elitechallenging
actions depend on prior democracy to be high and prior corruption to be low
but to a larger part they help making subsequent democracy high and subsequent
corruption low. Elite-challenging activities do exactly what the name says: they challenge
elites, demand responsible and transparent elite-behavior, and limit the abuse of entrusted
power.
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