Defining the Intervening and Explanatory Variables
Defining the Intervening and Explanatory Variables
This is the second of four chapters that discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the research on democratization in southern Africa that is described in the book, as well as providing qualitative discussions of democracy in the five country case studies used: Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It first defines the intervening variable of ‘inclusion’, which is described as key to the explanation of how conflicts are best managed within divided societies, and discusses its relationship to the macro-institutional explanatory (independent) variables used in the study. It then defines and describes how to measure each of the explanatory variables used: electoral system type; democratic type (coalitions and grand coalitions – consensual– versus concentrations of executive power; fusion – majoritarian – or separation of executive and legislative powers; unicameralism or bicameralism; type of party system; issues dimensions of partisan conflict; unitary versus federal government; constitutions, minority vetoes, and judicial review); and executive type (presidential or parliamentary). The data obtained for each country are discussed, compared, and summarised in tables.
Keywords: bicameralism, case studies, coalitions, conflict management, consensual systems, constitution, democratic type, democratization, electoral system type, executive power, explanatory variables, federal government, inclusion, independent variables, institutional variables, intervening variable, judicial review, legislative power, majoritarian systems, Malawi, minority vetoes, Namibia, parliamentary systems, partisan conflict, party system, presidential systems, South Africa, southern Africa, unicameralism, unitary government, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
