A blog to give a voice to our concern about the continued erosion of our democratic processes not only within the House of Commons and within our electoral system but also throughout our society. Here you will find articles about the current problems within our parliamentary democracy, about actions both good and bad by our elected representatives, about possible solutions, opinions and debate about the state of democracy in Canada, and about our roles/responsibilities as democratic citizens. We invite your thoughtful and polite comments upon our posts and ask those who wish to post longer articles or share ideas on this subject to submit them for inclusion as a guest post.
Contact us at democracyunderfire@gmail.com

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Our Fragile Democracy.

A new index released this week offers a sobering look at how democracy is faring in the United States.
According to the 2018 edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, the U.S. doesn't even make the list of top 20—its demonstrably "flawed democracy" notching it the 25th spot.
The ranking is based on 60 indicators spanning five interrelated categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Each category gets a 0-10 score, with the final score being the average of those five.
Topping out the index are Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, and Denmark.
Canada's rated a 9.15, which landed it the number 6 spot overall. Only twenty countries (12 percent) were designated as full democracies, 14 of which are located in Western Europe.


Meanwhile we have this headline 'Ontario courts urged to remind Doug Ford that Canadians ‘don’t elect dictatorships’ from the National Observer perhaps stretching it a bit but Ford has most certainly shown disdain for the normal democratic process and a certain segment of like minded politicians across the country seem to think that democratic process is more a hindrance than something to embrace and nurture.

Enough said, support democracy for it is a fragile thing.


Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers

2 comments:

Lorne said...

Use it or lose it, Rural, is the lesson we all should take from this.

Rural said...

Indeed Lorne, and respect and protect what we do have.....