[FRIAM] request for collective memory: degrees of democracy

[David Eric Smith]

Dear All,

I am very sorry to spam the list because I am a disorganized person and can't ever remember where I saw something.

Sometime in the past, an email was circulated that had a research paper on -- if I recall aright -- a way to talk about the degree of democracy a society has, by comparing polling about public opinions to records of congressional (or other represenative?) votes.  I _think_ it was on this list, but I have not found it in the archives in the past two months.

I ask because we have a group of colleagues where I am, from across the EU and North America who want to start reading academically in the history and function of democratic institutions, and I wanted to get that paper, see if it looked real to me, and if so contribute it to their list.

If you remember who you were that entered that post, and would be so kind as to point me to it, I would be grateful.  Steve sent me a wonderful post I had not received, which had some very good editorial material from Nick, but for this purpose I am specifically not pursuing editorial material (we are submerged in it from all angles), and I want to start with specific empirical pieces of which this seemed a good start.

Many thanks,

Eric