Scholars agree on democracy but not on what autocracy means.

Evidence

Often, uncertainty about terminology reflects conceptual problems. I use the term autocracy in the concept pair democracy–autocracy. However, there are a variety of other possibilities, e.g., “totalitarian,” “authoritarianism,” “dictatorship” (this is quite popular); in the 19th century the opposite of democracy was “monarchy.” These all have somewhat different meanings and suggest different definitions. In contrast, there is widespread consensus on the term “democracy.” — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 378

Categorization

• QUESTION: If ‘democracy’ has consensus and ‘autocracy’ doesn’t, is the consensus real or just a shared refusal to define? Chapter 5 promises statistical evidence.
• SEED: A piece on how the vocabulary deficit for ‘autocracy’ shapes which regimes get studied and how.