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Comment by robin_reala | Hacker News Reader

The US is at “flawed democracy” in the Economist Democracy Index: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index

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The US is a republic with some democratic institutions, but the economists index isn’t some platonic indicator that gets to define who’s a good government and who isn’t. Several of its higher ranking countries have outright banned extremely popular political parties in recent years.

Care to tell us what the politics of those parties were?

Because a functioning democracy would ban a nazi party.

So is France.

And both have a similarly executive-centric form of government where the president and the majority party hold a disproportionate amount of power. Although the US is even worse than France on this regard as far as I know.

I think it makes sense that both are categorised as flawed.

democracy is a lower form of government in the ancient world

I wonder who those critics were and what they were motivated by. (Rhetorical)

If you want to talk about rhetoric look at the idea of a “democracy index” - a score suggesting a scientific approach for determining how good/free a nation is.

We can play the “whose saying it game”, or look at the arguments. Democracy is rule by the lowest - and it’s easily manipulated by the popular. Buying votes, focus on the carnal, and immediate is a clear sign of democracy in decline.

I was more wondering about these emperors, kings, barbarians, and those in their influence who were casting aspersions at Athens. Why are we giving these historically incorrect people the time of day?

Once again, looking at incentives can help you find hidden motivations. But at some point you have to look at the arguments at see if they make sense or not.

The US founders didn’t believe in democracy. More people do today, mostly out of a sense that it’s moral obligation. Very few actually will argue it leads to better government outcomes.

I wouldn’t assume some any index from a magazine is the end all authority on what a nation state is.

I mean I can start my own magazine and create my own index however I want. Doesn’t mean it’s right.

I guess if your magazine's index reaches the height to have its wikipedia page, then, although it might not be right, but it will be pretty credible.

Anyone can have a Wikipedia page? There is no hurdle.

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