According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2010 “Democracy Index”, the United states ranks 17th out of 26 “Full Democracies” (EIU). The findings of this study point to a trend of declining American democracy in recent years. Indeed, this phenomenon is not unique to America: “the rollback in democracy is part of an underlying trend that has been evident for some time, but has strengthened. Between 2006 (the year of the first issue of the index) and 2008 there was stagnation; over the past two years, between 2008 and 2010, there has been outright decline” (EIU).
What is the connection between this trend and the global protest movements?
-Sam
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Yay for good posts that are also short! Thank you! It’s incredible how much influence the rest of the world has on America, not just the other way around. I say this because I think one of the biggest piece of kindle for the OWS fire was in fact other large scale protests occurring worldwide (Arab Spring, Greece/Spain’s indignants, and the British students protesters of 2010). But I am also curious: what’s in a democracy index? How does one measure democracy?
Sarah
Haha thanks (even though I just posted something really really long, oh well). Well, the truth is, a lot goes into measuring democracy and the subject is worthy of a pretty lengthy discourse. The EIU uses different methodology than others, and for more info on that I’d check out eiu.com. However one of the most extensive frameworks I’ve found comes from the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and for more on that you can check out idea.int.
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