We like to think of the UK being, if not the cradle of democracy, the mother of parliaments. Looked at objectively, how true is this?
Take a look at the 2014 Democracy Index. Here are the first 25 countries, all those categorised as full democracies. If you’d like to read the rest of the list (flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes) it is on Wikipedia.
Rank Country Score Category
1 Norway 9.93 Full democracy
2 Sweden 9.73 Full democracy
3 Iceland 9.58 Full democracy
4 New Zealand 9.26 Full democracy
5 Denmark 9.11 Full democracy
6 Switzerland 9.09 Full democracy
7 Canada 9.08 Full democracy
8 Finland 9.03 Full democracy
9 Australia 9.01 Full democracy
10 Netherlands 8.92 Full democracy
11 Luxembourg 8.88 Full democracy
12 Ireland 8.72 Full democracy
13 Germany 8.64 Full democracy
14 Austria 8.54 Full democracy
15 Malta 8.39 Full democracy
16 United Kingdom 8.31 Full democracy
=17 Uruguay 8.17 Full democracy
=17 Mauritius 8.17 Full democracy
19 United States 8.11 Full democracy
20 Japan 8.08 Full democracy
21 South Korea 8.06 Full democracy
22 Spain 8.05 Full democracy
23 France 8.04 Full democracy
24 Costa Rica 8.03 Full democracy
In August last year I was in Oslo and wrote a post about the Storting (parliament). You can refresh your memory here and see why Norway has earned its place at the top of the index.
Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as US Secretary of State, said that she liked representing the US because she got to sit beside the UK. Well, the UK and US are sitting uncomfortably close to each other and at the wrong end of the table.
I’d like to be able to tell you what the UK should do to improve but all I can do is to point out why we fare relatively badly. The countries that score well tend to have small populations and be culturally homogenous. They tend to elect social democratic governments and have a relatively small gap between the rich and the poor. I wonder how Scotland will fare when it achieves independence, as it surely will?
Here is another list of countries. Can you guess how they are ranked? I will tell you tomorrow, if I remember.
1 UK
2 USA
3 Ireland
4 Russia
5 Switzerland
6 France
7 China
8 Canada
9 Spain
Ha! It seems that I am more or less responsible for the 4th place of Russia. Strange that India is not in this list. At least, several of Indian Wodehouseans definitely “liked” your posts that I published on the page of “Fans of PGWodehouse” group of FB
Thank you, Masha, for being a big pusher of Blog Bellew in Russia and India. It’s something you can take everyday, get addicted to (I hope) and it’s a legal substance. I hope Jake, who you met when I was in Moscow, is hanging around school gates pushing BB too. I try to add a pinch of PGW to posts to add to the flavour, as you will taste on Thursday.