In the Name of Democracy
: Composition, Variation, and Measurement of Conceptions of Democracy
Funded by the Rapoport Family Foundation & Institute for Humane Studies
Supported by the Civic Health and Institutions Project (Survey time for a representative sample of 25,902)
Book manuscript in progress

My dissertation, In the Name of Democracy: Composition, Variation, and Measurement of Conceptions of Democracy, examines the ways in which the American people’s conceptions of democracy differ from one another. Both the participants of the January 6th Attack on the Capitol and the general public point to “saving the democracy” as a driving motivation. This apparent contradiction raises a complex and pressing question: do individuals share a uniform definition of democracy, or are they motivated by different conceptions of democracy? If variations exist, how can we accurately assess and articulate these differences to better understand their effects on the varying political attitudes or behaviors of the American people? 

In the first section of the dissertation, I develop a new measurement for individual-level conceptions of democracy. Similar to advancements in institutional measurements of democracy, such as the Variety of Democracy Index, my measurement framework addresses the heterogeneity in individuals’ conceptions of democracy by defining democracy as an aggregated conceptual construct composed of six distinct value dimensions: power structure, civil liberties, mass participation, rule of law, institutions, and free and fair elections. 

Using the new measurement framework, I conduct two mixed-method empirical tests. First, I conduct qualitative field research, comparing how a purposefully sampled pool of participants (N=27) conceptualizes democracy. Next, I develop and field an original survey, representative at the national and state levels (N=25,902), and conduct Latent Class Analysis to find results consistent with the qualitative study: significantly different, and some even conflicting, conceptions of democracy competing among the American public. In the final section of the dissertation, I explicate the impact of individual differences in conceptions of democracy, testing how the differences intersect with existing political and socioeconomic cleavages and how they provide valuable insights into the phenomenon of democratic backsliding. I find that individual conceptions of democracy cut across political and socioeconomic cleavages.