Talk:The Economist Democracy Index

New Democracy Index

When anyone decides to update this table for the new Democracy Index, can you please leave a quick note here? It may help prevent duplicate work. Thanks. Intralexical (talk) 01:15, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Hi, I'm updating the main list with the democracy index, the type of regime and the value for each category. Fm3dici97 (talk) 11:25, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Why is the newly updated table separated by continent and in alphabetical order, instead of being ordered by score from highest to lowest? — Preceding unsigned comment added by JackintheBox (talk • contribs)

@JackintheBox: There is ranking order in Democracy Index#Composition of Democracy Index. Democracy Index#Democracy Index by country shows many years so a ranking order would only apply to one year, and I see no need for two tables in ranking order. You can however sort the table by ranking in any year by clicking the arrows at top of the column. The shown rank number will always be for 2020. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:35, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

The section ordering seemed a bit odd. I have moved the 2020 index which is sorted by rank to be the first major table.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 11:41, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Why is Belize nowhere on the list? Janjan.cz (talk) 11:34, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

@Janjan.cz: The list is published by the Economist Intelligence Unit. They omit many small countries, some with larger population than Belize. There are 167 countries and territories on their list. The United Nations has 193 members. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:16, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Inconsistency between Regime type

Between the table in Democracy Index by country, Composition of Democracy Index and the infographic by the Economist, the regime type for 2020 is inconsistent. I don't know which are the true value. (See Taiwan, France and USA for example)72.53.104.28 (talk) 16:06, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

I see no inconsistency. Taiwan is a full democracy in 2020. France and USA are flawed democracies. 2020 is the right-most column. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:25, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

Color contrast

Just noticed a question at the help desk archives about a reader asking what the total score value was for Iceland.....as they could not see the number because of colour blindness problems.--Moxy 🍁 01:51, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Error in "By Country"

Turkey should be on the Central & Eastern Europe section, not on Western Europe. 64.237.238.199 (talk) 03:57, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

I think I've done that now BushelCandle (talk) 04:46, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

You only changed it in one of two tables but I have reverted you. The article says "The regions are assigned by the Economist Intelligence Unit". The country counts and region averages are from the EIU report and would be wrong if we chose our own groupings. It is an odd choice to place Turkey in Western Europe and I once mentioned it in a note.[2] It was removed in [3]. I think it should be restored. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:03, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

You're absolutely right, PrimeHunter, and I apologise for not checking the bizarre geographical categorization of Turkey as belonging to Western Europe by the Economist Intelligence Unit (I still haven't checked, but I take your word for it).

I could possibly understand this weird assignment if the index was founded before the fall of the Iron Curtain but in 2006 this must have been a really weird geographical choice!

Should we mention this choice in the body text and delete the internal link to "Western Europe"?

At the very minimum, I think your note should be restored.BushelCandle (talk) 22:10, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

I would personally have placed Turkey in Asia. The 2020 report makes it sound even weirder with this quote: "However, the civil liberties score for Turkey, at just 2.35, remains the lowest in Western Europe by a significant margin and the country is the only “hybrid regime” in the region."

I think we should keep the internal links on common geographic terms. Other countries could also be debated, e.g. placing Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (Central Asia) in Eastern Europe. I had those in mind with my note "The region is defined by the official EIU report, for example grouping Turkey in Western Europe and all post-Soviet states in Eastern Europe." The report says "Eastern Europe" like my edit. Somebody changed it to "Central and Eastern Europe". I think we should use the EIU term. If we don't find sources commenting on the assigned regions then we shouldn't criticize it but a brief mention of the odder assignments could be in the body where it's more visible than a note. Then readers may get a better understanding of the averages, and maybe don't blame Wikipedia like the IP if they notice the country grouping in the tables. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:43, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

I absolutely agree. BushelCandle (talk) 02:41, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Could Jersey have its own entry in the tables as it has very different arrangements from the rest of the UK?

Jersey has no political parties and most citizens feel left out of decisions. Elector turnout at elections are around 33%. This could usefully be brought out in this page. Thanks. Bicyclic (talk) 12:52, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

Bicyclic, only if it is originally listed in the EIU report which the list is based on. – robertsky (talk) 13:09, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

You are correct and I have now written to the EIU about this issue. Tax havens such as Jersey commonly have very large scale economic activities which are supported by legislation intended to benefit non-residents rather than their local populations. Bicyclic (talk) 23:46, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

Regarding Canada

I disagree that Canada has a full democracy as there is constitutional monarchy.