The Economist recently published another Democracy Index, scoring countries in terms of how democratic they are in the world. The first edition was published in 2006. The newest ranking is based on performance in 2014.
Each nation is assessed based on:
1."Whether national elections are free and fair";
2."The security of voters";
3."The influence of foreign powers on government";
4."The capability of the civil servants to implement policies".
Then apparently a country is given score and placed in four categories.
Full Democracy is a score 8.0-10
Flawed Democracies are nations with scores of 6.0-7.9
Hybrid Regimes are 4.0-5.9
Authoritarian Regimes are bloodthirsty dictatorships with scores of 3.9 and below.
Over the years the rankings have changed, but most countries tend to be the same category since the first ranking in 2006.
Norway received a score of 9.9, the most democratic nation in the world. North Korea is the most repressive coming in dead last with 1.0.
The top ten most democratic are
Norway
Sweden
Iceland
New Zealand
Denmark
Switzerland
Canada
Finland
Australia
Netherlands.
The ten most repressive beginning from bottom to top are:
North Korea
Central African Republic
Chad
Equatorial Guinea
Syria
Democratic Republic of Congo
Saudi Arabia
Turkmenistan
Guinea-Bissau
Iran
The U.S ranks at 19 in case you were wondering. Does this list make sense to you, or were there surprises?
The Economist article requires a subscription to view the rankings and report, but no worries because Wikipedia has the new rankings of 170 nations plus the report.
Democracy Index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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