A Flawed Democracy?

Every year Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research arm of the Economist magazine ( a fairly conservative publication), issues a report assessing the state of democracy in countries around the world, ranking them from Authoritarian Regime to Full Democracy. The rankings are determined by quantitative measures of five different parts of democracy: “electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture.” We normally rank as a Full Democracy, this year we are considered a Flawed Democracy.

Why? According to the report, “The decline in the US democracy score reflects an erosion of confidence in government and public institutions over many years”. Our lowest scores are in “the functioning of government” (7.14) and “political participation” (7.22). Surprised? I'm not. We have a non-functioning political system and uncaring voters.