Canada world's most democratic countries
Canada is ranked as one of the most democratic countries in the world according to the Democracy Index, but there is still room for improvement!
Canada got 10 out of 10 for the electoral process and political pluralism and ranked 12th among the world's democracies in the Economist Intelligence Unit's updated Democracy Index.
The Democracy Index provides data on what's going on with democracy in 167 countries based on points in five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.
Canada's overall score rose 0.01% from last year to 8.88, while its southern neighbor, the U.S., ranked 30th, scored an unchanged 7.85 since 2021.
The index ranks Canada as a full democracy. By the way, there are only 24 countries ranked like this. The U.S. is called a "flawed democracy". The Economist Intelligence Unit has classified the states in this category since 2016.
"Full democracy" is described as one "in which not only fundamental political freedoms and civil liberties are respected but in which there is a developed political culture that promotes the flourishing of democracy". Democratic government, independent media, an effective system of checks and balances, and an independent judiciary are also hallmarks of "full democracy."
Here's the full top list:
- Norway.
- New Zealand.
- Iceland.
- Sweden.
- Finland.
- Denmark.
- Switzerland.
- Ireland.
- The Netherlands.
- Taiwan.
- Uruguay.
- Canada
Luxembourg, Australia, and Greece are among the countries that are slightly lower on the list than Canada but maintain the same benchmark of the electoral process and pluralism.
"Canada has consistently performed well on the Democracy Index because of its history of stable, democratic government," the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) states, noting also its high scores for civil liberties, the electoral process and the functioning of government.
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Regarding civil liberties, the index reported that "the Canadian state supports freedom of expression and religious and cultural tolerance, which is important given a large number of French-Canadians and other minorities in Canada". It also noted that "all Canadians are equal under the law.
Post Soviet countries
As for the states that were once part of the USSR, they do not have such positive statistics. The Baltic countries учзусеувдн фку the highest in the ranking. Estonia bypassed the United States of America, establishing itself on the 27th position. Next come Latvia and Lithuania, they are on the 38th and 39th positions. All three have the same highest indicator for electoral process and pluralism, 9.58.
Ukraine is on the 87th position. Only Armenia is above her in the ranking, she is 82nd. Russia holds a distant 146th place, having dropped by 22 positions compared to last year. The average score is 2.28. For electoral process and pluralism, Russia received less than one point out of 10 possible, only 0.92. Republic of Belarus 157th. It dropped 7 positions, and today its average score totaled 1.99, although back in 2021 it was 2.41.
There's a lot to look forward to
Despite this assessment, the index exposes that Canada has room for improvement when it comes to political participation. This is a problem that the EIU says is common in many developed countries. Canada received a score of 8.89 in this category.
The EIU pointed at weak voter turnout and a general lack of political activity.
