The Democracy Index

The Economist Intelligence Unit has published its fourth survey of the state of democracy in the world, as at December 2011.They have five groups of criteria:

1. electoral process and pluralism
2. civil liberties
3. functioning of government
4. political participation
5. political culture

Countries are then ranked into one of four groups:

1. full democracies – 25 countries (11% of world pop)
2. flawed democracies – 53 countries (37% of world pop)
3. hybrid regimes – 37 countries (13% of world pop)
4. authoritarian regimes – 52 countries (38% of world pop)

The top 10 countries are:

1. Norway 9.80
2. Iceland 9.65
3. Denmark 9.52
4. Sweden 9.50
5. New Zealand 9.26
6. Australia 9.22
7. Switzerland 9.09
8. Canada 9.08
9. Finland 9.06
10. Netherlands 8.99

The bottom countries are:

1. North Korea 1.08
2. Chad 1.62
3. Turkmenistan 1.72
4. Uzbekistan 1.74
5. Myanmar 1.77
6. Equatorial Guinea 1.77
7. Saudi Arabia 1.77
8. Central African Republic 1.82
9. Iran 1.98
10. Syria 1.99

NZ’s score and ranking is the same as in 2010.