Centripetal Democratic Governance: A theory and Global Inguiry
Gerring J., Thacker S, Moreno C.
Yılmaz Topuz

 Background Information : What is Centralism,
Decentralism, Centripetalism?
 Conceptualization, Empricial Tests, Research Design
 Results and Critique
 Discussion

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Centralism:
- Centralization of power
- Founder: Hobbes
- Westminister System presuming good governance would be provided by power transfer to single centre.
Decentralism:
- Decentralization of Power
- Founder: Montesquieu
- American Polity supporting the seperation of power among multiple independent bodies
- Checks and Balances

 On the contrary to the theory of decentralism, good governance is associated with centralized power.
 Reconciliation between centralized authority and broad inclusion.
- Inclusive: All interests, ideas and identities
- Authoritative: Providing and agreement and implementing that agreement.
 The power of authority is persuasive, not coercive: Bringing together diverse groups and perspectives to solve political conflicts.

 Measurement Levels : Ordering Scheme
- 0 = federal , 1= semi federal, 2= nonfederal
- 0= presidential, 1= semipresidential, 2 = parliamentary
- 0=majoritarian, 1= mixed-member majority, 2 = closed list Proportional Representation(PR)
Scope condition: Democracy

 -“Minimum threshold of democracy”
 My suggestion : Procedural minimum for Democracy
( Collier and Levitsky, 1997)
- “Fully contested elections with full suffrage and absensce of massive fraud combined with
- Effective guarantees of civil liberties including freedom of speech, assembly and association”

 The model is statistically significant.
 The author finds a strong support with centripetal form of government on all 8 dependent variables
However , if there are too many cases and observations, the significance of some cases is ruled out !!!

 Unitarism Political Stability
Do you think that political stability is a measurement for good governance?