Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Race, Gender, Ethnicity, Class and the Spread of Suffrage in Democracies

这个博士论文研究支持项目的主要目标是填补由于经验文献中民主的定义和可操作性的差异而造成的政治学文献中的一个空白。民主的定义强调所有人的参与和选举权的重要性。然而，在实施时，选举权，除性别外，适用于因种族、族裔和征服而与占主导地位的公民社区分开的群体，要么受到轻视，要么被忽视。这意味着，尽管已经研究了从非民主形式的政府向精英民主的转变，但从排他性民主向允许大多数成年人投票的更具包容性的民主转变却被忽视了。本论文的研究建立了一个数据库，追踪1800-1998年间民主国家不同群体的选举权成就。该数据库被用来检验一种理论，该理论解释了通过物质、政治和规范力量的相互作用，民主国家从排斥到包容的转变。这将有助于在理论上整合这些通常在文献中单独讨论的不同类型权力的相互作用。对于那些想要探索扩大选举权代表的基本参与权的原因和影响的人来说，该数据库也是一个超越当前研究的重要资源。本论文的研究项目有望大大提高我们对这一主题的理解。

The major objective in this Doctoral Dissertation Research Support project is to fill a gap in the political science literature created by the difference in the definition and operationalization of democracy in the empirical literature. Definitions of democracy stress the importance of participation and suffrage for all. However, when operationalized, suffrage, with the exception of gender, as it applies to groups separated from the dominant civic community by race ethnicity, and conquest has been either slighted or ignored. This has meant that while the move from nondemocratic forms of government to elite democracy has been studied, the move from exclusive democracy to more inclusive democracy that allow most adults to vote has been ignored. This dissertation research creates a database tracking the achievement of suffrage for different groups in democracies from 1800 to 1998. The database is used to test a theory that explains the move from exclusion to inclusion in democracies through the interaction of material, political and normative power. This will help to integrate theoretically the interaction of these different types of power that are usually dealt with separately in the literature. The database also serves as an important resource beyond the current research to those who would explore the causes and impacts of the expansion of the basic right to participate that suffrage represents.This dissertation research project promises to enhance substantially our understanding of the topic.