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US is actually less democratic than many countries - Canada, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Democracy_Inde
by rorrr2 13y ago
US is actually less democratic than many countries - Canada, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Democracy_Index_2012_green_and_red.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Democracy_Index_2012_gree...
[2] http://www.democracyranking.org/en/ranking.htm http://www.democracyranking.org/en/ranking.htm
If we're talking about economic freedom or the freedom of press, it's even worse:
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index
- contingencies 13y agoThe notion of democratic itself is a flawed one - meaningful representation left the building a long time ago. It is often used to evoke some sense of greater social justice. Notice though, how notions such as 'willingness to invade other sovereign nations' or 'laws on books against fundamental human rights' or 'presence of any constitution or meaningful court of higher appeal' or 'centralization of media ownership' or 'measured trajectory of higher educational capacity' or 'number of excuses government can use to spy on or detain citizens' also seem conveniently out of scope. Simply put, the notion we are sold of western democracy as some all-solving wonderland of equality and transparent empathetic good-governance is a farce. The more people lend rankings like these ones credence, the harder that is for people to see. (Though they certainly do have some utility, it is important also to see them critically.)
- rorrr2 13y agoWhy don't you create a better ranking and see how it does? I bet the results will be nearly identical, if not worse for the US.