Popular Conceptions of the Meaning of Democracy: Democratic Understanding in Unlikely Places

Figure 2. Freedom House Scores and Relative Emphasis on Freedom/Liberty 
versus Political Process as Definitions of Democracy 
Zimbabwe 
Zambia 
Venezuela 
USA 
Uruguay 
Uganda 
Thailand 
Tanzania 
Taiwan 
Spain 
South Africa 
Romania 
Poland 
Philippines 
Peru 
Paraguay 
Panama 
Nigeria 
Nicaragua 
Namibia 
Mongolia 
Mexico 
Mali 
Malawi Lithuania 
Lesotho 
Korea 
Japan 
Indonesia
Hungary 
Hong Kong 
Honduras 
Guatemala 
Ghana 
El Salvador 
Ecuador 
Czech Rep 
Costa Rica 
Colombia 
China 
Chile 
Brazil 
Botswana 
Bolivia 
Austria 
Afghan
Argentina 
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Freedom House Score
Fr
e
e
dom
 m
inus
 Pr
oc
e
s
s
R=.37 
Source
: Freedom House scores for year of survey and a measure of the difference between those 
defining democracy in terms of freedom/liberty minus those defining it in terms of political process. 
Early studies of political culture and political development often discounted the ability or 
the willingess of the public in developing nations to understand or embrace democracy (e.g., 
Almond and Verba 1965; Pye and Verba 1965). Our results provide a more positive picture of 

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the level of awareness of democracy, and the breadth of citizen responses. Even if individuals do 
not fully comprehend the exact details of the factors they cite in defining democracy, the fact that 
they cite broad principles of liberal democracy is a positive finding. Moreover, the identification 
of democracy with greater freedom and liberty has broadly diffused across the globe, articulated 
by publics in even unlikely political and economic circumstances. This reinforces Sen’s (1999) 
claim that democracy represents a human value that is relatively easily understood, and these 
sentiments apparently strengthen further with democratization.