Gray-zone categories can be scored by how many defining criteria a case meets.

Evidence

Simplifying, there are three major categories for the family resemblance–OR part of equation (7.1): (1) unfair elections, (2) violation of civil liberties, and (3) uneven playing field. Within these three dimensions there about 11 criteria. If we treated these 11 as basically equal, then an ideal type competitive–authoritarian regime could be defined as one having 4–6 of these criteria present. Regimes that have only 1 present are thus weakly competitive–authoritarian on the democracy side and those with 10 are weakly competitive–authoritarian on the autocracy side. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 1148

Categorization

• DEFINE: Makes concrete how a family-resemblance concept gets operationalized: an 11-criterion checklist with a 4-6 midpoint band for the ideal type.
• XREF: Echoes the DSM’s checklist-plus-threshold logic for diagnosing personality disorders, which Goertz uses as the canonical hybrid template.