4 ms·

Lol nowhere near the best, unfortunately. By multiple rankings. https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking https://en.wik

by kortex 8mo ago

Lol nowhere near the best, unfortunately. By multiple rankings. https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu

nickff 8mo ago
[flagged]
- SilverElfin 8mo ago
  Yes, and in part because of that. The way they teach history and make their citizens resistant to authoritarianism through schooling is different from the really basic ways history is taught in America.
- HWR_14 8mo ago
  The Germans have a new constitution and have kept the Nazis out of power with the new one.
  - direwolf20 8mo ago
    So far. Between a quarter and a fifth of the country, however, currently votes for the Nazi party.
- defrost 8mo ago
  The US literally elected Trump. Not that they had a wide field of choice and not that they can actually fire him. Both reasons the US political system isn't all that great - it nosedived into a two party Hotelling's Law quagmire despite the founders being against party politics. It's hardly suprising a system centuries old and creaking failed to scale. Washminster systems are a literal reaction to the cracks in the Westminster and Washington systems. Maybe check those American Exceptionalism / Manifest Destiny blinkers and look about a little, it's hard to see out of a rut.
  - Diesel555 8mo ago
    Washington captured many issues of the party system in his farewell address. This can relate to many times in history for both parties. "They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force—to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party; often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/W...
    - defrost 8mo ago
      Nice quote, cheers for that. Ben Franklin on why the US Constitution is "Probably the best we can do for now" but will likely "fall to a Despot" is worth a revist in these Trumpian times.
- vineyardmike 8mo ago
  > The Germans literally elected the Nazis... you think they’re better at democracy FYI - Germany changed their government after this regime fell, to ensure that it would become more democratic and harder to concentrate power in the executive. So they became more democratic as a learning process. The US had an actual civil war (over slavery no less) and didn't change anything fundamental about their constitution nor government structure as a result. It was less deadly than the holocaust, but enduring a civil war is not a sign of a functioning democracy.
- computerthings 8mo ago
  [dead]
beeflet 8mo ago
looks like objective data to me. Look at our democracy number, it's lower than a ton of other countries!
amscanne 8mo ago
LOL, the first list also seems to use the US as the cut-off & first country that is a “deficient democracy”. The magic number must be between somewhere between 0.811 and 0.821. Having spent a good chunk of my life in Canada and the US, a list that has Canada as more democratic doesn’t make any sense to me. In the end, it’s just a random mix of different measurements, weighted to tell whatever story you want to tell.
jjav 8mo ago
See also this metric, showing how fast the US is falling away from a democracy: https://www.ft.com/content/b474855e-66b0-4e6e-9b73-7e252bd88938?accessToken=zwAGSbCfepa4kdO0dIVeZrBObtObc34lK9iJOA.MEQCICsl-wnbkT-zHL1ucGdIU4o9IzZ1_M0Vy0qdxb7vUAtFAiBjN9PiR_5XQC1WmAKGp19wO2ppR9PaHyvusfIJqCZHaA&sharetype=gift&token=bd398d72-3953-4f44-a757-0fc09ad1c3ed https://www.ft.com/content/b474855e-66b0-4e6e-9b73-7e252bd88...

by kortex 8mo ago

nickff 8mo ago

[flagged]

SilverElfin 8mo ago
Yes, and in part because of that. The way they teach history and make their citizens resistant to authoritarianism through schooling is different from the really basic ways history is taught in America.
HWR_14 8mo ago
The Germans have a new constitution and have kept the Nazis out of power with the new one.
- direwolf20 8mo ago
  So far. Between a quarter and a fifth of the country, however, currently votes for the Nazi party.
defrost 8mo ago
The US literally elected Trump. Not that they had a wide field of choice and not that they can actually fire him. Both reasons the US political system isn't all that great - it nosedived into a two party Hotelling's Law quagmire despite the founders being against party politics. It's hardly suprising a system centuries old and creaking failed to scale. Washminster systems are a literal reaction to the cracks in the Westminster and Washington systems. Maybe check those American Exceptionalism / Manifest Destiny blinkers and look about a little, it's hard to see out of a rut.
- Diesel555 8mo ago
  Washington captured many issues of the party system in his farewell address. This can relate to many times in history for both parties. "They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force—to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party; often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/W...
  - defrost 8mo ago
    Nice quote, cheers for that. Ben Franklin on why the US Constitution is "Probably the best we can do for now" but will likely "fall to a Despot" is worth a revist in these Trumpian times.
vineyardmike 8mo ago
> The Germans literally elected the Nazis... you think they’re better at democracy FYI - Germany changed their government after this regime fell, to ensure that it would become more democratic and harder to concentrate power in the executive. So they became more democratic as a learning process. The US had an actual civil war (over slavery no less) and didn't change anything fundamental about their constitution nor government structure as a result. It was less deadly than the holocaust, but enduring a civil war is not a sign of a functioning democracy.
computerthings 8mo ago
[dead]

beeflet 8mo ago

looks like objective data to me. Look at our democracy number, it's lower than a ton of other countries!

amscanne 8mo ago

LOL, the first list also seems to use the US as the cut-off & first country that is a “deficient democracy”. The magic number must be between somewhere between 0.811 and 0.821. Having spent a good chunk of my life in Canada and the US, a list that has Canada as more democratic doesn’t make any sense to me. In the end, it’s just a random mix of different measurements, weighted to tell whatever story you want to tell.

jjav 8mo ago

See also this metric, showing how fast the US is falling away from a democracy: https://www.ft.com/content/b474855e-66b0-4e6e-9b73-7e252bd88938?accessToken=zwAGSbCfepa4kdO0dIVeZrBObtObc34lK9iJOA.MEQCICsl-wnbkT-zHL1ucGdIU4o9IzZ1_M0Vy0qdxb7vUAtFAiBjN9PiR_5XQC1WmAKGp19wO2ppR9PaHyvusfIJqCZHaA&sharetype=gift&token=bd398d72-3953-4f44-a757-0fc09ad1c3ed https://www.ft.com/content/b474855e-66b0-4e6e-9b73-7e252bd88...