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Arguably, a country without a fair, equal and representative electoral system is not a true democracy. This excludes the us and most Commonwealth countries, exc
by ant6n 5y ago
Arguably, a country without a fair, equal and representative electoral system is not a true democracy. This excludes the us and most Commonwealth countries, except new Zealand (since their electoral reform a decade or so ago).
- lazide 5y agoYou pretty quickly hit a ‘no true Scotsman’ situation pretty quickly though. If only one country (or a single digit percent) that calls itself a democracy qualifies under the criteria, what use is the criteria?
- batrachos 5y agoMaybe it's not useful? Or not as presented here? I mean, Malaysia and Japan have both been ruled by basically the same party for all but maybe a few years since the end of foreign occupation. One is ruled a democracy here, thee other isn't. I don't see a good reason why, other than Japan is friendlier with Western values than Malaysia. It's also useless when you look more than about 50 years in the past. In 1835 you were really democratic if every white man could vote, now even somewhere like Iran has suffrage for women and minorities.
- ant6n 5y agoNot really. There are many countries with fair, equal, representative elections. With its 200 year old system, the us is really behind the pack.