The rapid worldwide phase of democratisation since the 1980s has stimulated a renewed interest in how we define and measure democracy. In this wide-ranging volume, leading political theorists, political scientists and experts in comparative government from across Europe address the following questions: By what criteria is the level of a country's democracy to be assessed? How far is democracy subject to measurement and if so what kind of measurement and with what degree of precision? Can the same criteria or indices be applied to developing democracies and established ones? Are the standards used by Western scholars ethnocentric or universal? From questions of how to define democracy to the issue of cultural diversity, each chapter offers new insights and approaches placed in the context of contemporary debates. Defining and Measuring Democracy is essential reading for students and scholars of comparative politics and democracy.