THE DECLINE OF DEMOCRACY

The blatant takeover of Ukraine by Russia seems close to reality.  Will this lead to China doing the same to Taiwan?  Donald Trump opened the door to both and Joe Biden and the European Union seem powerless to say don't.  While the Scandinavian countries are united for freedom and democracy, many elective democracies, including the USA, show signs of fraying.

The Democracy Index shows that we are a FLAWED Democracy.

The 2021 Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index map 

Full democracies   9.01–10   8.01–9

Flawed democracies   7.01–8   6.01–7

Hybrid regimes   5.01–6   4.01–5

Authoritarian regimes   3.01–4   2.01–3   0–2.00

The U.S. shows a score of 7.85 and ranks #26, with Norway #1 at 9.75.  Russia is #124 (3.24) and China #148 (2.21).  Afghanistan is #167 (0.32), Myanmar is #166 (1.02) and North Korea is #165 (1.08).

The shift to democracy is shown here from 1816:  File:Democracy_peace_theory_gif.gif.  

• 
  Democracy is a political system in which all members have an equal share of power.
• Humanity started with a hunter-gatherer society and tribalism, a form of primitive democracy.
• In time came monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy and oligarchy.

• 
  Mesopotamia had a primitive democracy circa 2000 BC.
• India had independent republics as early as the 600 BC.

• 
  The birthplace of modern democracy is said to have started in Athens around 508 BC.  
• Rival Sparta was an oligarchy, government run by a few.
• Remember that their Great War lasted from 431-404 BC...and Sparta prevailed.

• 
  Rome was a Republic.  What is the difference between a Democracy and Republic?  Read this.
• Republics are Israel, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, Philippines....etc.
• Democracies are Norway, Sweden, France, U.S.....etc.
• This is confusing, but Russian and North Korea are non-democratic Republics.  This essentially is Donald Trump's goal.
• Or that China is a one-party socialist Republic.
• 
  Interestingly enough, more than 600 years of American Indian democracies led to Ben Franklin and his originators borrowing from them.  Funny, but this was not acknowledged until the U.S. Senate did so in 1988.
• Refer to Wikipedia to learn about the evolution of democracy.
• Today, here are the electoral democracies:

Freedom House last year reported that THE GLOBAL DECLINE IN DEMOCRACY HAS ACCELERATED.  Fewer than 20% of the world's population now live in a fully Free country.  During this 15-year decline, freedom dropped in 73 countries, representing 75% of the global population.  Included in this group are the USA and India.  It is entirely possible that President Donald Trump might have been a forerunner and not an anomaly.

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