Norway #1 on Democracy Index -- U.S. is #17

The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit that claims to measure the state of democracy in 167 countries, of which 166 are sovereign states and 165 are UN member states.

The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture. The Index was first produced in 2006, with updates produced in 2008 and 2010.

2010 Norway scored a total of 9.80 on a scale from zero to ten, which was the highest result, replacing Sweden which had the highest score in 2008, but slipped to fourth position in 2010. North Korea scored the lowest with 1.08, remaining at the bottom in 167th place, the same as in 2008.

The United States ranked #17.

It's interesting that of the 11 most democratic countries in the world, 8 of them are Constitutional Monarchys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_ ... 0_rankings

lol Obama is destroying our democracy!

Just kidding, we do have a lot less democracy, see how many laws and regulations are being created by un-elected bureaucrats instead of elected representatives.

I wonder if states like Colorado get a higher rating for democracy since we can vote on ballot issues. Some European voters also get to vote on individual laws.

Norway isn't part of the Euro zone so they get to avoid the international bureaucrats that Greece, Germany and others that write more laws than just thier elected reps.

You have to love the qualifier in that first sentence of the article, ". . . that claims to measure the state of democracy." Whether or not their claim is a valid one or not is not covered at all. Being that we are a republic and not a democracy one would think we would rather not be high on the list of those that are very good at protecting the tyranny of the majority that is inherent in a democracy form of governance.

Back to the Federalist Papers again.... :blabla:

Wayne, read history and learn from it, instead of trying to imagine some progressive ideal fraught with total BS.

Heartless, try not to let your imagination get the best of you and assume things that have happened...

It is an interesting analysis and table. I learned a word I didn't know- unicameralism.

I was surprised Iraq was so far down on the list too. Wonder why?

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/Ameri ... emrep.html Here is but one link showing the important difference between a democracy and a republic. Please note the "no protection of the individual or minority against the unlimited power of the majority."

Thanks for posting that for anyone who might not know the difference.

An easy way to remember what the U.S. is under is by noticing there is no "Battle Hymn of the Democracy."

Now if we can get Odildo to understand this.