The Economist’s annual ranking of the strength of democratic values and institutional safeguards among 165 countries around the world places Canada and New Zealand just behind Norway, Iceland and Sweden near the top of the class.
We could easily replace the article below focused on New Zealand with a similar article focused on Canada. We could also comment on some of the limitations of the democratic values framework employed, notably the acceptance of “first passed the post” electoral systems, and the lack of democratic rights at the local government level in Canada.
“The Scandinavian countries dominate the top ten, with Norway coming out on top, followed by Iceland and Sweden.Australia is ninth, with a score of 8.96 and Iran is the least democratic country on the list, with a score of just 2.2. New Zealand’s ranking puts it in the “full democracy” category of the list – by contrast, the US’s score of 7.92 puts it in the “flawed democracy” category […]”
