The United States characterizes democracy for the rest of the world. It is no secret that since its inception over two hundred years ago, the globe has turned its discerning wide-eyed wonder toward the United States as democracy's ringleader. Be that as it may, for now, the world may need to find another leader of the pack, for the simple reason that currently the United States is flawed in terms of being among the globe's leading democracies.
This, according to the renowned Economist: Intelligence Unit's categorization and annual Democracy Index.
Nevertheless, this study is quick to point out; even though the overall score did not fall by much. It fell enough to place the US below an important threshold. A demarcation denoting that the US is no longer a full democracy. America has joined France, Greece, and Japan in the annual study's lower ranks. For the first-time America ended up in the second tier.
America's decline could be caused by the same factors that influenced Trump's White House win
Do not blame Trump. The report maintains the downgrade is not his fault. On the contrary, the cause could be the result of the same elements that influenced Trump's White House win. The report cites the following as the culprits of America's decline.
- The unrelenting withering away of belief in both federal and state government's elected officials to perform in a capacity that is ethical, wise, and in the population's best interest.
- A flawed electoral process.
- Lack of political participation.
- Decreasing capacity of leadership to fulfil the needs of the population.
- Scarce governance accomplishments.
- Dwindling civil liberties.
- A withdrawing democratic political culture.
The index uses data from global surveys.
Embracing a total of sixty gages across five distinct categories.
- Electoral process and pluralism.
- The functioning of government.
- Political participation of the population.
- A democratic and political culture.
- Overall civil liberties.
A related form of decline in the confidence of political leaders and governmental institutions is perceptible in Europe as well.
Over seventy countries show a similar drop, weighed against the 2015 index.
While those in the high middle lose ground, the poles remain the same
Nonetheless, Brexit helped Britain. The 72.2% turnout caused Britain to jump ahead instead of lagging behind in 2016. However, that is probably the one event that saved Britain from slipping in the index. In the face of solid leaders that once held firmly in the high middle ground, several are now slipping out of the upper ranks. The nations at opposite poles in the index remain in place. Norway is on top with a near-perfect 9.93 out of 10, while North Korea continues to remain at the bottom of the table.
