2020 Democracy Index
RankΔ RankCountryRegime type
Electoral process and pluralism
Functioning of government
Political participation
Political culture
Civil Liberties
Overall score
Full democracies
1 Norway Full democracy 10.00 9.64 10.00 10.00 9.41 9.81 0.06
2 Iceland Full democracy 10.00 8.57 8.89 10.00 9.41 9.37 0.21
3 Sweden Full democracy 9.58 9.29 8.33 10.00 9.12 9.26 0.13
4 New Zeala Full democracy 10.00 8.93 8.89 8.75 9.71 9.25 0.01
5 Canada Full democracy 9.58 8.93 8.89 9.38 9.41 9.24 0.02
6 Finland Full democracy 10.00 8.93 8.89 8.75 9.41 9.20 0.05
7 Denmark Full democracy 10.00 8.93 8.33 9.38 9.12 9.15 0.07
8 Ireland Full democracy 10.00 7.86 8.33 9.38 9.71 ...
In 2019 Canada was tied for #7 with Denmark.
Canada and Denmark are tied for functioning of government and for political culture.
In the survey, Canada beats Denmark for political participation. This seems odd as its voter turn-out (85 percent) is larger than ours (67 percent). Certainly we have wide liberty to vote and to run as candidates but after the ballot boxes are taken away from voters, the fairness ends.
Canada also beats Denmark for civil liberties in the survey. Perhaps Denmark locked down harder for COVID. Perhaps Canadians will pay the price in deaths that Denmark paid in civil liberties points.
Denmark beats us on electoral process and pluralism. It has party-list pro-rep. Canada - well - Canada is using the same system that it was using when it became a country in 1867, with the same unfairness, minority rule and inflated regionalism.
Canada also jumped over Finland, which dropped a spot, due to drop in civil liberties.
Canada jumped over Ireland, which dropped two spots. Ireland's rating for political culture and civil liberties dropped. again probably due to COVID restrictions.
Canada's ratings for civil liberties (9.41) showed a drop as did its rating for functioning of government (8.93). its rating for political participation (to 8.89) rose considerably apparently due to the minority government. The rise is certainly not due to any increase in voter turn-out (our last election is still 2019) and not due to any great move toward citizen's assemblies, royal commissions or referendums.
Canada
2019 9.58 9.64 7.78 9.38 9.71
2020 9.58 8.93 8.89 9.38 9.41
Finland
2019 10.00 8.93 8.89 8.75 9.71
2020 10.00 8.93 8.89 8.75 9.41
One person says Canada got brownie points for having a minority government, thus having co-operation between parties. She suggests Canada would have these points more often under a pro-rep system, in which the majority of voters, who at the federal level usually belong to more than one party, will have government more often. Trudeau's minority government was a bit of an accident. With a move of less than one percent of the vote to the Conservatives, the Conservative would have had a minority government. Under either case, 40 to 65 percent of the votes in each district would have still been ignored as far as representation goes.
New Zealand with its Mixed Member Proportional system has us beat for "Electoral process and pluralism." If we got district-level pro-rep through STV in city-wide districts, we could do better in that category. Let's try it!
Thanks for reading.
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