General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums2011 Democracy Index: Only 11% of people live in "Full Democracies".
http://www.eiu.com//public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=DemocracyIndex2011This is down from 12% last year. A lot of countries in Europe have been slipping.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File emocracy_Index_2011.png
10 is the best score. The United States scored 8.11 and is in 19th position behind the Czech Republic, Malta and Uruguay amongst others.
Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Israel, and many others have status as "Flawed democracies".
DPRK are worst with a score of 1.08.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index#2011_rankings
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)Granted, it's only one place but I'm surprised our constitutional monarchy didn't count against us.
Lars77
(3,032 posts)It does not really matter much, as the Royals in Scandinavia are mere figureheads. The King of Norway does have the power to veto anything passed by parliament, but everyone knows that if he tried that we would be a Republic within days. In fact, a majority in the Norwegian parliament supports going Republic if it ever became a real issue, which it is not.
The House of Lords in the UK is definately problematic in this sense.
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)Technically, the monarch has veto power but if they ever excercised it, it'd cause a constitutional crisis that would end the monarchy (the monarchy has a slight edge in public support here).
Agreed that the mess in the HoL urgently needs resolving.
izquierdista
(11,689 posts)I would put the U.S. on a par with Mexico. And I'm sure Presidents Gore and Lopez Obrador would agree with me.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,149 posts)just when a score passes an integer number. It's hard to see exactly what makes them call France a 'flawed' democracy, while the UK is 'full', according to their list.