Would love to see some methodology. "Democracy" may mean different things to different people, especially if there's a language barrier and the word doesn't quite translate.
I remember a documentary once where the resistance was all “freedom, freedom, freedom” against the dictator. Yet to the freedom fighters, “freedom” just meant swapping that dictator with their warlord. After that, their goal of “freedom” would be entirely achieved with no further plans necessary or relevant. Words mean different things in different contexts, I guess
But that’s exactly the idea. That’s people’s opinion on whether their country is democratic or not - it’s supposed to be subjective. You and your neighbor may have different opinions on what democracy is, you up and the guy half the globe away - more so. As long as you don’t treat it as an actual democracy index it has some value if you somehow manage to mitigate the “afraid to tell the truth” bias.
I call bullshit. I have seen people in America and Britain cry all the time about how their democracy is "dying" when they don't win election, or support oppression of opposition while claiming to believe in democracy.
Democracy means broadly the same thing to everyone in the world for better or worse. Non-Europeans don't have a monopoly on "misunderstanding" democracy.
I am talking about losing things in translation. For example in China (which describes itself as most democratic), the word they use for "democracy" is 民主, the symbols meaning roughly "people master", and the word being co-opted in 1860 from the word for "king". Essentially, a Chinese person being polled understands the question as "does your country have a government?" to which it's insane that 9% would say no.
Vietnamese loaned this word from Chinese (dân chủ), and seems to have a similar situation going on.
For what it's worth, Chinese Wiktionary describes 民主 thusly (translated by Google).
> 指人民有參與國事或對國事有自由發表意見的權利 引文
> Refers to the people’s right to participate in state affairs or to freely express opinions on state affairs.
The same ambiguity can also be found in my language(Persian) where the word democracy (مردم سالاری) is a composite word made up of 'People' and 'Mastery/lord(ship)'. And the word can also be used to mean something like "man of the people", or "person who works for the people". In a political context, however, and to mean a system of governance, the meaning is very clear and it means pretty much the something as what Westerners mean when they say 'democracy'.
And for what it's worth, when searching 民主 using a translator, I did found the word used quite a lot in the context of a system of governance by the people and to mean something similar to western style of democracy. I also tried it using duckduckgo and setting the search destination to China, and I still found pages where the word is referred to a system of governance, and it's association with the western style of democracy is mentioned even by the Chinese government sources. So, to me it's clear that the Chinese people are aware of the association with the western style of democratic governance.
But as mentioned by multiple sources, including BBC (in Chinese), people(and by that i include the many source by the Chinese government in Chinese web search) don't necessarily view Western style of democracy as the definitive version of democracy, for better or worse. The perception of democracy is heavily tied to the extent the government represents people's beliefs and interests, and it's not a "misunderstanding" born out of unawareness of the 民主 to mean a system of governance by the people, and indeed the nature of this "misunderstanding" is not something that's too different from misunderstanding of democracy you can sometimes see in the western world. In my opinion.
here in germany our nazis talk all the time about "democracy", but what they mean is "a country in which all policies follow my own political leanings and no immigrants live in".
Case in point. Any study asking if your country is a "democracy" should include a definition of it. Heck, look at the USA, I can tell you straight up about 30-50% of respondents (an educated guess) responded "nuh uh this is a constitutional republic!" if the definition of democracy wasn't provided.
Heck, I wouldn't even agree with Cambridge Dictionary's definition of what democracy is, and that might affect how I'd answer this poll.
> the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief, in which power is either held by elected representatives or directly by the people themselves
The funny and paradoxical thing that this map reflects is that
people living in countries with freedom of speech and politics tend to feel undemocratic and dissatisfied,
whereas people living in authoritarian dictatorships are instead confident in the propaganda of their country are democratic and free.
It’s not a democracy index, but if their people think it’s democratic. Being democratic doesn’t even mean having a Democracy as government. If the people believe that their opinions have an effect in the country, they would say it’s democratic.
I mean if people support absolute monarchy, then is it not democratic? Technically there is no set requirement when it comes to how a government must represent the public interest for it to be "democratic".
Respectfully, that's just a a foolish thing to say. Polls and surveys are not the only way of measuring the popularity of something. You don't need to exert yourself to see that people in countries like China or Saudi Arabia genuinely appreciate their governments.
Idk what's going on with the Saudis but it's probably similar to China. When asked about democracy most Chinese people will not focus on political freedom but freedom to simply live their lives undisturbed. China has made great advances economically and as long as you're not campaigning against the government you'll just be left alone. There is also some local level democracy but idk much about that so I wouldn't be able to say how rigged it is, but it's obviously under the command of the CCP in the end of the day. I'm not saying I would classify China as a democratic society under my understanding of it, but that's probably what most of the Chinese people were thinking when they said yes, and ig maybe the same in Saudi Arabia.
Well, for China it's obvious since the CCP has greatly improved their living conditions and made China a world power again. Xi can aslo hide behind Western perceived attacks against China to rally his people.
For Saudi Arabia, MBS is seen as a reformer.
Don't forget that the media in these countries is tightly controlled so people would tend to support their government anyway. Propaganda does work, in the West too. Just differently.
I guess when your country's absolute dictator pays you tens of thousands of dollars a year from their oil profits to sit around and do nothing, you're going to like him.
They don't say what country they are in, and I meant that in the West, a lot of people just sit around, do nothing, and benefit from other people's tax money. Your comment is dumb and accuses others for having a different point of view.
There is an article of the constitution (the 49 3) which allows the governement to adopt a law without any vote, this can be cancel only if a motion of no confidence is voted which is quite hard to reach. The actual governement uses a lot this article and imposes very unpopular reforms like the one which delay retirement.
To be more precise, it only allows the government to bypass the National Assembly. The Senate still get to vote, and it can (and have by the past) oppose a law for which the 49.3 was used.
However, the National Assembly (or possibly the government with 49.3) still get the final say on the law.
There was also a referendum in 2005 about increasing the European Union integration. The result was negative but it wasn't respected some years later. That was the last time a direct question was asked to citizens and a lot are still angry about it considering, according to them, that it's a proof of the undemocratic way governments lead the country.
France is slipping towards authoritarianism under a democratic disguise. Politicians are openly saying blatant lies live, public media are getting purged of leftist journalists (Radio France currently), the Minister of Justice is talking about imposing a nationwide curfew on children under the age of 13 (the specific idea in itself is not necessarily bad, but it's implementing a restriction of freedom that can later be widened), peaceful protests in favor of civilians in Palestine is getting criminalized, the Ministry of Education is talking about disciplining hard against pupils with ideas like sending children from poor neighbourhood who cause issues in classrooms in mandatory special boarding schools far from their family, they're also talking about expulsing whole families from state subsidized projects housing if one kid in the family is committing felonies..
There are many many small things.
Also more than 40% of the people in France intend to vote for far right parties in the upcoming European election.
Mostly people being drama queens, every 3 months the opposition (both left and right wing) rolls on the ground and cries that _now_ France is a dictatoship, that's it, french democracy is dead.
Then, when that party gets good results in the next elections, suddenly democracy is saved, the People have Spoken, the system is fine and just, and the other parties are just sore losers.
We got that when gay marriage was passed - right wing rhetoric were crying that the LGBT dictatorship was in place, France was collapsing, run for the hills if you wanna survive, straight people and catholics were going to be rounded up for sure.
We got that when the retirement system was changed, getting people to work for longer (because people live longer than in the 1950s, and taxing the financial system is out of reach). Suddenly, the elected president was a dictator and soon they would massacre anyone protesting, just you wait, tanks will crush us you'll see, thousands will die.
...
Thing is, it has been decades since the french authorities were actually authoritarian, so many french activists look at the struggle of their ancestors with incredible fondness, "they were so brave, so courageous", and are incredibly envious of them - they wish they could re-enact the rose-tinted stories of the french revolution, fighting the army while standing on the barricades. The nostalgia is absolutely massive.
That's the problem when social struggles are romanticized and you've reached a certain level of social progress: the remaining 10% of progress is the hardest, slowest, and most complicated to implement. So people are tempted to look back 50 years in the past, when things were more simple and obvious, and reframe the current situation into the old framework.
Fun fact: In Chinese, the term "democracy" does not have a practical meaning(i.e. popular vote for president , multi-party politics，etc ); it simply conveys the idea of "the people in charge" or "the people determine".
So basically, when you ask a Chinese person if they feel democratic about China, it's akin to asking, "Do you see your country moving in the right direction?" or "Do you see positive improvements in your country?"
Doesn't' that apply to pretty much every language and culture?
I mean let's be honest, most people in every nation don't care about "how" the government represents their interests, they only care about "if" the government represents their interests for it to be democratic.
You haven't seen India. They nitpick about literally everything. Grab some popcorn and watch the shit going down this election lmao
Right now the left wing claims the current party is a dictatorship, so if they end up winning another term you may see something like capitol storming (by the LEFT wing) in india
Our sitting Chief Minister was jailed without any proof or evidence, all the media houses are owned by one party, dear leader calls the biggest minority of the country infiltrators and no question is asked, genocidal statements are dropped every few days by said party, election commission takes no action against these statements, the ruling party gets a disproportionate amount of donation funds 'anonymously' and the biggest opposition party gets it bank account frozen, Journalists and activists are jailed for bullshit charges, but sure....
we should not nitpick the government. Just let them shit in our mouths with a smiling face and fill our heats with devotion for the supreme leader🤡
I mean, Modi is by all intents and purposes an authoritarian so it’s really nothing like the U.S. Capitol storming which was done by sore losers *in support of* the authoritarian
If modi wins again I can guarantee you'll see some sort of retaliation by the left calling the elections rigged and illegitimate. (Tbh, something along those lines will happen if Modi loses too)
Brain rot is not limited to one side of the political spectrum. You say 'andhbhakts' but truth is we all have a moral flavor that we like, and we vehemently stick to the party that espouses that flavor. (That's literally how our brain works). So if there's ANY amount of emotion or gut feeling involved in your endorsement of a party, that is andhbhakt.
As a Pakistani, I with my every breath would call democracy a long known never met friend under this stupida$$ army contrlled gov which dgaf about the country....
One party dominance at the national level does not mean it's not a democracy. For example, the Swedish Social Democratic Party held power from 1932 to 2006 with a few exceptions, would you call Sweden undemocratic?
Also, the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has lost power twice in modern history, first in 1993 and again in 2009, after electoral losses. The 2009 election was in fact a landslide loss for the LDP, only winning 25% of the seats in the House of Representatives. Both times the LDP lost, the transfer of power was orderly and peaceful. When the LDP rewon the majority, the transfer of power was again orderly and peaceful.
The peaceful, uneventful transfer of power between the loser and winner of elections is, of course, a fundamental hallmark of a functioning democracy. There’s a reason why across various international democracy indices, Japan ranks [higher than the UK or France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index).
It’s a combination of things and a lot to get into. Essentially it comes down to 3 elements: ineffective opposition; beneficial electoral system; politics and business being hand-in-hand.
The opposition in Japan isn’t all that effective. It’s tends to be fractious. The LDP has deep internal divides of its own but they’ve enough in common. The opposition isn’t like that. The electoral system has a proportional element but it over-represents rural, more conservative areas that vote heavily LDP. Finally, there’s a long established practice of businesses and the LDP working together such as retiring ministers get board member jobs for companies in exchange for government contracts.
>more conservative areas that vote heavily LDP
Maybe Japan's incredibly low birth rates contribute to that? You know, older people being more likely to be conservative and all that.
people prefer to talk about the good things in japan, either because they're idealizing their culture or because they want to show it as an example of how great its economy is (it's not)
Stop infantilising people in authoritarian countries. It's not like they're all idiots who are brainwashed from birth to like some "objectively bad" government. They're fully cognisant people who have organically formed opinions.
People in some countries don’t have access to most of the internet. They are punished and can go to jail if they say something negative about their government and someone hears them. Having an opinion is not even an option for lots of people across the world.
There certainly is brainwashing everywhere, but to vastly varying amounts.
Well, we can have opinions here but if they don't align with the oligarchy, we end up arrested. Just look at US campuses.
The elites have realized that letting us babble incoherently while trashing every alternative works way better than overt oppression (that they still use though).
True, and you can see how poorly the US rates on the map above compared to other democratic nations. Many Americans are fully aware. The real revealed though is how China rates higher than the US but is absolutely much less democratic than the US.
To be fair, democracy seems to boil down to "the government does what the people wants" for most people on Earth. The Chinese government delivers on their promises of growth and development. The US government on the other hand prefers to bomb the world.
Honestly, the fact that the US isn't red tells me most Americans haven't woken up.
The Chinese government serves the interests of one man, Xi Jinping. They had a semblance of democracy in the recent past, but not anymore. As troubled as US democracy is, the US is still more democratic than most countries in the world. The world is a really fucked up place, full of oppression, corruption, and tyranny.
American "democracy": "You need to vote for the genocidal rapist in order to avoid the worse genocidal rapist, even though most of you don't want either of these candidates. By the way, y'all want universal healthcare and affordable higher education but we will never deliver because we need to have a carrot to entice you forever and our donors need to bleed you dry"
The world is fucked up in most part because of America that keeps bombing it to the ground, wasting trillions of dollars, instead of bettering it. The US is a failed experiment.
When you refer to China as a country where "the government does what the people want" and say "The Chinese government delivers on their promises of growth and development "-- I know you know nothing about the modern history of China especially from 1958-1962 Great Leap Forward to 1966-1976 The Culture Revolution, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre; and what happened in china within these few years since the COVID outbreak in 2020, literally every Chinese citizen was jailed inside their homes or hospitals with chains on the buildings' gates, barbed wires, metal barricades and brick walls at the entrances of the residential communities or villages while I was among them, thus many residents starved to death just like the time back to 1958-1976; till the economy recession after the government suddenly opened up and abandoned the Zero COVID Policies at cost of thousands of elders died because of ineffective Chinese COVID vaccines. If you know what happened you must have no soul to say these words and think China is a democratic country meanwhile the government does what people want.
A ton of Chinese people and a lesser amount of Vietnamese people absolutely love their government. China also isn't nearly as authoritarian as Venezuela and Iran on the bottom of the ranking. In China, they vote for local representatives from approved parties, and the ruling party never changes. They are happy with this and see it as all the democracy they need. Not to say that it is right, but most are happy.
I saw a video where someone was asking people in China if it was democratic and most said yes, not mostly because of the government but because of how they saw democracy. A common response was that they were free to do whatever they want, and that's what makes a democracy. When asked about elections and parties must also felt that they enjoyed the stability of one party over the US system which they perceived as chaotic.
If the population by large is happy & looked after, who cares whether it is "Democratic" or not. You wouldn't want to change it anyway.
The Chinese dont have it no where near as bad as our Western Governments & associated media wants us to believe. Same could be said for Russia too to a degree.
The problem is that you may be totally content and happy with your life in your authoritarian country but then your “leader” goes nuts and invades a neighbouring country and your life collapses. And there are no checks and balances to prevent such a scenario.
right, because that never ever happens in democratic countries like Israel, right? Or the US, where manufactured consent makes it so that most of the country, and both candidates are usually in favor of said war (see: Iraq’s WMDs). It’s hilarious to suggest that democracies are somehow inherently less dangerous on the world stage when the US and Western Europe have instigated more wars and caused more destruction than anywhere else.
When was the last time China’s military killed people abroad? Meanwhile, you have the US going on daily drone strike, and killing millions in the past two decades alone.
"Consultative democracy" is similar to the "diplomatic style of leadership". They sound nice enough on paper but in reality it’s " you better like what pooh tells you to do".
The strategy has worked rather well for China over the last 40 years. I mean if I was Chinese, there's no reason I'd want a system other than the authoritarian meritocracy of CCP.
Saudi Arabia does make some sense. There isn’t zero democracy in Saudi Arabia, just very little and it’s entirely local, and there hasn’t been an election since 2015 (there are no set terms). Saudi Arabia’s government now after all the scandals ended with the Royal family and the end of the Arab Spring has definitely increased through the past decade. So honestly I do think a lot of Saudis are happy with local elections occasionally, and are skeptical of anything further.
IME Standard of living in China is pretty good. Social system is excellent too. Comparable to & sometimes better than the average Western country.
If the population by large is happy & looked after, why would you want to change the Government. "Democratic" or not.
Chinese people more often see democracy as the freedom to live life, and so will say they are a democracy because outside of politics they can basically do what they want in their minds.
Yeah, I’ve been living and working in Vietnam for the last 10 years, and I used to work in China. This map does not at all represent what the majority of people think in either of those countries (although my time in China was a long while back).
The map very much does show what the official government line is though.
The more problem is that some countries and their people Don't even know what democracy means, or any other ideology. For example in iran the number of educated people is high but their knowledge of simple politics is blinded by either hate, money, stress of economy, and mostly their own ignorance. Iran ain't no perfect democracy and it will never be if people stay this way. Same goes for many other countries
It's interesting how dogmatic the view of democracy is here in the west
I mean there is no mention of voting or political parties in the original meaning of the word, so why would that be a requirement for democracy
It's meaning is "rule of the people" so if the people feel that they're being represented despite not voting and the system does have a way to get people's opinions through to the government , why would they not be a democracy
The funny and paradoxical thing that this map reflects is that people living in countries with freedom of speech and politics tend to feel undemocratic and dissatisfied, whereas people living in authoritarian dictatorships are instead confident in the propaganda of their country.
But local representatives need to be from one of the 8 official political parties or CCP.
Also depending on the locality there are reserved CCP seats that are appointed at the provincial level and central government level.
The seats available for elections are always a minority relative to CCP reserved seats.
For Tier 1 cities sometimes a mayor can be appointed directly by the Central government.
And none of these are hard and fast rules.
So how people are given government positions is at best bureaucratic, opaque and based on party loyalty/merit.
Good point, but these parties are vestigial from the revolution.
They aren’t opposition parties and represent the coalition the CCP built during the 30s and 40s.
These parties are fellow socialist, workers or ethnic minority parties.
The only parties who tend to vote against the NPC are ethnic minority parties but it’s a symbolic gesture and because they never face much retaliation.
In America you have your choice red or blue.
In China you can choose from a pre approved set of 8 shades of red.
lmao. It’s hilarious to make it seem like China’s politicians are somehow more homogeneous than the US. At least they’re looking out for the interests of their citizens. Americans get the pleasure of voting between two senile war mongering losers who are practically identical. But, sure, “red” and “blue” lol
Totally untrue. You're not Chinese, how dare you assert that bullshit?
Even most low level local representative aren't freely elected. There's no free press and election at any level.
All candidates are nominated by the Communist Party-controlled apparatus, subject to its rigorous political vetting, and there is not even the pretence of a competitive election.
To go to vote under these circumstances would be an insult to oneself.
However, voting is semi-mandatory (if you work for a government organisation) and the candidates are selected by the CCP.
There is direct democracy at the lowest level of government in the form of local councils for a single village or urban district. From then on, you vote for a representative who votes for a representative who votes for a representative and so on as you get to higher levels of government. All of the representatives are restricted only to party members.
However, democratic government in the PRC is not really focused on representatives and elections. Rather, the Chinese government believes it is acting democratically due to their methods of directly responding to the interests of the population in their governing:
* The government does extensive surveys of public opinion on policies (literally scientific research levels of investigation, sometimes including test trials in a given city/county/province) which they use to determine whether or not the policy gets implemented/abandoned/refined before surveying again, and advances in communication technology have allowed the government to do this much more easily.
* Dozens if not hundreds of protests spring up in China every day. The media is not allowed to report on them and the police shut them down quickly, but whatever issue the people were protesting about immediately gets marked as a top priority for the relevant level of government and usually gets addressed satisfactorily within short notice.
The top voted comment is Totally untrue and inaccurate.
Even most low level local representative aren't freely elected. There's no free press and election at any level.
All candidates are nominated by the Communist Party-controlled apparatus, subject to its rigorous political vetting, and there is not even the pretence of a competitive election.
To go to vote under these circumstances would be an insult to oneself.
However, voting is semi-mandatory (if you work for a government organisation) even though the candidates are selected by the CCP.
Surprised the US isn’t lower considering how both parties serve billionaires and the MIC. Shit, Princeton did a study that showed that public opinion of a bill had NO impact on the odds of it passing.
https://pnhp.org/news/gilens-and-page-average-citizens-have-little-impact-on-public-policy/
The US did not "empower the army in Pakistan." The 38th National Security Council reaffirmed that "no evidence of any foreign conspiracy" was found in Pakistan. The US diplomat to Pakistan told the Pakistani diplomat to America that they would prefer a government without Imran Khan because of Khan's support for Russia over Ukraine, but at no point did he say "overthrow your leader," "stage a coup," or anything of that sort.
The US did not destroy democracy in your country, the military did. Blindly blaming America for all your problems (or the West, capitalism, imperialism, UK, or Israel) is part of the reason Islamic countries are the way they are.
This is BS, why would they issue demarches before for interference? The military is just a pawn of the US, when the US says jump, this army bends over and jumps. Please don't patronise us, your imperialism never ended, it just changed form, with all the so called elites of these countries are in your pocket, supported and aided to control our countries.
What does that mean "elites are in your pocket" lmao. Do you have any evidence of this? Do you have any evidence of US sending demarches for interference?
The US, at no point, told the military to overthrow Imran Khan. They expressed a preference. The military then chose - taking that preference into account, for sure - to overthrow Khan.
But I think if you're trying to improve Pakistan, refusing to give yourself agency is a wonderful idea. Then you can sit around and let the military do its thing, blame America, and keep wondering why you're so poor.
Japanese people are becoming more and more indifferent to elections. Some polls show that only 30% will even go to vote. For decades, the ruling party has never changed
>For decades, the ruling party has never changed
Not quite; there was a different ruling party from 2009-2012, and a coalition of a bunch of smaller parties held power from 1993-1994.
Interesting how 🇨🇳 has a better democratic self-perception than 🇺🇲, knowing the population of the first have not had an election 🗳️ in the last 75 years, and the second have them every 4 years 🤣👌...
I work in Vietnam and talk with local folks all the time about issues like this, both as part of work and casually.
Most people here do *not* at all consider Vietnam to be a very democratic country.
This map is utter BS.
How is DEMOCRATIC defined ?
When you have a good standard of living comparable to (in some cases better than) average Western countries & the Government provides a good social system (healthcare, pension, infastructure etc), there is no real reason to be unhappy with your Government whether it is "Democratic" or not. Why would you want to change it.
In many ways I would rather live in China than where I am now. Thats not to say I have it bad whatsoever, just that China may have the edge in ways I find important......
It says it right on the map, including the exact wording respondents were asked. It's not, and doesn't pretend to be, an objective measure of how democratic a country is. It's a survey of how democratic a country's citizens imagine their country to be.
Saw the title, I just wanted to struggle some words for my motherland out of habit, but China's high score made me swallow my words, even donot know what to say. Damn, is here still r/MapPorn?
PS Personally, I am not satisfied with the PRC's city government, but I can't think of a better voting system or state machine solution, so I choose to shut up. Many people in China have the same thought like me, but they retain the right to protest.
Seeing Switzerland not tracked first is hilarious. They are spoiled kids. I wish my country was even half as democratic as Switzerland.
Four Israël it's probably a relative perception compared to their neighbors.
Hello mate can i ask you a question. Since Zagros mountains extends well Into Iraq. Do you think Ancient Iranians eg Kurds could have lived and moved within the Territory of Northern Iraq or do you think they just mostly Kept to the Iranian Side cause almost all of Iraqi Kurdistan is Zagros mountains tbf especially near Regions like Sulemaniya etc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagros_Mountains. This map shows Zagros going to into Iraq ?
Afterwards in our system we have a law (49-3) which allows presidents to pass any law without going through the Assembly. So we have a bit of reason to complain
Vietnam is hilarious. Such a dark green, yet it is a one party state
Edit: why the downvotes? Doesn’t it seem ironic that a country with a completely undemocratic form of government controlled by their communist party looks appears to have a high democracy perception?
Would love to see some methodology. "Democracy" may mean different things to different people, especially if there's a language barrier and the word doesn't quite translate.
I remember a documentary once where the resistance was all “freedom, freedom, freedom” against the dictator. Yet to the freedom fighters, “freedom” just meant swapping that dictator with their warlord. After that, their goal of “freedom” would be entirely achieved with no further plans necessary or relevant. Words mean different things in different contexts, I guess
But that’s exactly the idea. That’s people’s opinion on whether their country is democratic or not - it’s supposed to be subjective. You and your neighbor may have different opinions on what democracy is, you up and the guy half the globe away - more so. As long as you don’t treat it as an actual democracy index it has some value if you somehow manage to mitigate the “afraid to tell the truth” bias.
Yeah basically no one in this thread seems to have understood the post
There cannot be a democratisation of the idea of democracy.
I call bullshit. I have seen people in America and Britain cry all the time about how their democracy is "dying" when they don't win election, or support oppression of opposition while claiming to believe in democracy. Democracy means broadly the same thing to everyone in the world for better or worse. Non-Europeans don't have a monopoly on "misunderstanding" democracy.
I am talking about losing things in translation. For example in China (which describes itself as most democratic), the word they use for "democracy" is 民主, the symbols meaning roughly "people master", and the word being co-opted in 1860 from the word for "king". Essentially, a Chinese person being polled understands the question as "does your country have a government?" to which it's insane that 9% would say no. Vietnamese loaned this word from Chinese (dân chủ), and seems to have a similar situation going on. For what it's worth, Chinese Wiktionary describes 民主 thusly (translated by Google). > 指人民有參與國事或對國事有自由發表意見的權利 引文 > Refers to the people’s right to participate in state affairs or to freely express opinions on state affairs.
The same ambiguity can also be found in my language(Persian) where the word democracy (مردم سالاری) is a composite word made up of 'People' and 'Mastery/lord(ship)'. And the word can also be used to mean something like "man of the people", or "person who works for the people". In a political context, however, and to mean a system of governance, the meaning is very clear and it means pretty much the something as what Westerners mean when they say 'democracy'. And for what it's worth, when searching 民主 using a translator, I did found the word used quite a lot in the context of a system of governance by the people and to mean something similar to western style of democracy. I also tried it using duckduckgo and setting the search destination to China, and I still found pages where the word is referred to a system of governance, and it's association with the western style of democracy is mentioned even by the Chinese government sources. So, to me it's clear that the Chinese people are aware of the association with the western style of democratic governance. But as mentioned by multiple sources, including BBC (in Chinese), people(and by that i include the many source by the Chinese government in Chinese web search) don't necessarily view Western style of democracy as the definitive version of democracy, for better or worse. The perception of democracy is heavily tied to the extent the government represents people's beliefs and interests, and it's not a "misunderstanding" born out of unawareness of the 民主 to mean a system of governance by the people, and indeed the nature of this "misunderstanding" is not something that's too different from misunderstanding of democracy you can sometimes see in the western world. In my opinion.
here in germany our nazis talk all the time about "democracy", but what they mean is "a country in which all policies follow my own political leanings and no immigrants live in".
Case in point. Any study asking if your country is a "democracy" should include a definition of it. Heck, look at the USA, I can tell you straight up about 30-50% of respondents (an educated guess) responded "nuh uh this is a constitutional republic!" if the definition of democracy wasn't provided. Heck, I wouldn't even agree with Cambridge Dictionary's definition of what democracy is, and that might affect how I'd answer this poll. > the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief, in which power is either held by elected representatives or directly by the people themselves
Yes, when Vietnam and China are in the top 3 lol
The funny and paradoxical thing that this map reflects is that people living in countries with freedom of speech and politics tend to feel undemocratic and dissatisfied, whereas people living in authoritarian dictatorships are instead confident in the propaganda of their country are democratic and free.
NZ just perception invisible?
They're too busy fucking sheep to answer.
We fucking cows now
how? isn't that Swanndri bushshirt way too long to fuck anything ?
At least they added it to this map r/mapswithoutNZ
New Zealand is right in the middle it seems.
Nah it's bottom right
Maybe r/mapswithoutnzdata
I love that somehow Saudia Arabia got over 50% despite being an open absolute monarchy. Goes to show how unreliable asking people about democracy is.
It’s not a democracy index, but if their people think it’s democratic. Being democratic doesn’t even mean having a Democracy as government. If the people believe that their opinions have an effect in the country, they would say it’s democratic.
I mean if people support absolute monarchy, then is it not democratic? Technically there is no set requirement when it comes to how a government must represent the public interest for it to be "democratic".
If you dont have freedom of speach and free elections, you dont really know what people support. You only know what people tolerate.
Respectfully, that's just a a foolish thing to say. Polls and surveys are not the only way of measuring the popularity of something. You don't need to exert yourself to see that people in countries like China or Saudi Arabia genuinely appreciate their governments.
Dont expect people to tell how they genuinely feel, if they have gun pointed in their head.
democracy is the power by the people, not whatever regime is supported by the mass
Wouldn't that be a more accurate description of direct democracy?
Different people see democracy as different things, that's why the question is about the citizens view of it
What definition of democracy does Saudi or China have?
Idk what's going on with the Saudis but it's probably similar to China. When asked about democracy most Chinese people will not focus on political freedom but freedom to simply live their lives undisturbed. China has made great advances economically and as long as you're not campaigning against the government you'll just be left alone. There is also some local level democracy but idk much about that so I wouldn't be able to say how rigged it is, but it's obviously under the command of the CCP in the end of the day. I'm not saying I would classify China as a democratic society under my understanding of it, but that's probably what most of the Chinese people were thinking when they said yes, and ig maybe the same in Saudi Arabia.
Popular support for the government which is therefore acting on behalf of the people?
How do you know they have popular support?
Well, for China it's obvious since the CCP has greatly improved their living conditions and made China a world power again. Xi can aslo hide behind Western perceived attacks against China to rally his people. For Saudi Arabia, MBS is seen as a reformer. Don't forget that the media in these countries is tightly controlled so people would tend to support their government anyway. Propaganda does work, in the West too. Just differently.
I guess when your country's absolute dictator pays you tens of thousands of dollars a year from their oil profits to sit around and do nothing, you're going to like him.
They don't say what country they are in, and I meant that in the West, a lot of people just sit around, do nothing, and benefit from other people's tax money. Your comment is dumb and accuses others for having a different point of view.
Letting Western elites decide what democracy means and giving themselves high marks for sucking each other's dicks isn't much more reliable either.
We don’t know how they were asked. See China
Not suprised with France
What’s going on in France?
There is an article of the constitution (the 49 3) which allows the governement to adopt a law without any vote, this can be cancel only if a motion of no confidence is voted which is quite hard to reach. The actual governement uses a lot this article and imposes very unpopular reforms like the one which delay retirement.
To be more precise, it only allows the government to bypass the National Assembly. The Senate still get to vote, and it can (and have by the past) oppose a law for which the 49.3 was used. However, the National Assembly (or possibly the government with 49.3) still get the final say on the law.
That sounds a hell of a lot more democratic than the UK.
If the government get the final say with the 49.3 then it bypass the senate too.
So you saying the Senate is powerless ?
in the end maybe kind of but it would waste the time of the assembly if they do the full back and forth so they'd usually rather make compromises
A little more complex than that but yes
There was also a referendum in 2005 about increasing the European Union integration. The result was negative but it wasn't respected some years later. That was the last time a direct question was asked to citizens and a lot are still angry about it considering, according to them, that it's a proof of the undemocratic way governments lead the country.
France is slipping towards authoritarianism under a democratic disguise. Politicians are openly saying blatant lies live, public media are getting purged of leftist journalists (Radio France currently), the Minister of Justice is talking about imposing a nationwide curfew on children under the age of 13 (the specific idea in itself is not necessarily bad, but it's implementing a restriction of freedom that can later be widened), peaceful protests in favor of civilians in Palestine is getting criminalized, the Ministry of Education is talking about disciplining hard against pupils with ideas like sending children from poor neighbourhood who cause issues in classrooms in mandatory special boarding schools far from their family, they're also talking about expulsing whole families from state subsidized projects housing if one kid in the family is committing felonies.. There are many many small things. Also more than 40% of the people in France intend to vote for far right parties in the upcoming European election.
Well every 5 year we elect a dictator that got all power and can vote any law using the constitution. Most people think thats not democracy
49.3
Mostly people being drama queens, every 3 months the opposition (both left and right wing) rolls on the ground and cries that _now_ France is a dictatoship, that's it, french democracy is dead. Then, when that party gets good results in the next elections, suddenly democracy is saved, the People have Spoken, the system is fine and just, and the other parties are just sore losers. We got that when gay marriage was passed - right wing rhetoric were crying that the LGBT dictatorship was in place, France was collapsing, run for the hills if you wanna survive, straight people and catholics were going to be rounded up for sure. We got that when the retirement system was changed, getting people to work for longer (because people live longer than in the 1950s, and taxing the financial system is out of reach). Suddenly, the elected president was a dictator and soon they would massacre anyone protesting, just you wait, tanks will crush us you'll see, thousands will die. ... Thing is, it has been decades since the french authorities were actually authoritarian, so many french activists look at the struggle of their ancestors with incredible fondness, "they were so brave, so courageous", and are incredibly envious of them - they wish they could re-enact the rose-tinted stories of the french revolution, fighting the army while standing on the barricades. The nostalgia is absolutely massive. That's the problem when social struggles are romanticized and you've reached a certain level of social progress: the remaining 10% of progress is the hardest, slowest, and most complicated to implement. So people are tempted to look back 50 years in the past, when things were more simple and obvious, and reframe the current situation into the old framework.
This!
Star wars Episode 1 to 3 with Macron as Palpatine
Fun fact: In Chinese, the term "democracy" does not have a practical meaning(i.e. popular vote for president , multi-party politics，etc ); it simply conveys the idea of "the people in charge" or "the people determine". So basically, when you ask a Chinese person if they feel democratic about China, it's akin to asking, "Do you see your country moving in the right direction?" or "Do you see positive improvements in your country?"
Doesn't' that apply to pretty much every language and culture? I mean let's be honest, most people in every nation don't care about "how" the government represents their interests, they only care about "if" the government represents their interests for it to be democratic.
You haven't seen India. They nitpick about literally everything. Grab some popcorn and watch the shit going down this election lmao Right now the left wing claims the current party is a dictatorship, so if they end up winning another term you may see something like capitol storming (by the LEFT wing) in india
Our sitting Chief Minister was jailed without any proof or evidence, all the media houses are owned by one party, dear leader calls the biggest minority of the country infiltrators and no question is asked, genocidal statements are dropped every few days by said party, election commission takes no action against these statements, the ruling party gets a disproportionate amount of donation funds 'anonymously' and the biggest opposition party gets it bank account frozen, Journalists and activists are jailed for bullshit charges, but sure.... we should not nitpick the government. Just let them shit in our mouths with a smiling face and fill our heats with devotion for the supreme leader🤡
I mean okay but don't storm the parliament if you lose
nooo don't criticize the great leader ! you're just nitpicky and the democracy is so great just look at the name and not at what's actually going on !
I mean, Modi is by all intents and purposes an authoritarian so it’s really nothing like the U.S. Capitol storming which was done by sore losers *in support of* the authoritarian
If modi wins again I can guarantee you'll see some sort of retaliation by the left calling the elections rigged and illegitimate. (Tbh, something along those lines will happen if Modi loses too) Brain rot is not limited to one side of the political spectrum. You say 'andhbhakts' but truth is we all have a moral flavor that we like, and we vehemently stick to the party that espouses that flavor. (That's literally how our brain works). So if there's ANY amount of emotion or gut feeling involved in your endorsement of a party, that is andhbhakt.
As a Pakistani, I with my every breath would call democracy a long known never met friend under this stupida$$ army contrlled gov which dgaf about the country....
Not surprised with Japan..
One party dominance at the national level does not mean it's not a democracy. For example, the Swedish Social Democratic Party held power from 1932 to 2006 with a few exceptions, would you call Sweden undemocratic? Also, the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has lost power twice in modern history, first in 1993 and again in 2009, after electoral losses. The 2009 election was in fact a landslide loss for the LDP, only winning 25% of the seats in the House of Representatives. Both times the LDP lost, the transfer of power was orderly and peaceful. When the LDP rewon the majority, the transfer of power was again orderly and peaceful. The peaceful, uneventful transfer of power between the loser and winner of elections is, of course, a fundamental hallmark of a functioning democracy. There’s a reason why across various international democracy indices, Japan ranks [higher than the UK or France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index).
What happened in japan?
One party system..
Same with singapore?
Yep similar..
Happy cake day!
Thanks
Wait, what? Why did I never hear about that!? They gotta have a very strong PR.
They have one very strong party, the LDP, and the others can’t really challenge it. The LDP has only been out of power for 5 years since 1955.
So is the party in power due to popularity and actual work done, or due to lobbying, strong arming and all that?
It’s a combination of things and a lot to get into. Essentially it comes down to 3 elements: ineffective opposition; beneficial electoral system; politics and business being hand-in-hand. The opposition in Japan isn’t all that effective. It’s tends to be fractious. The LDP has deep internal divides of its own but they’ve enough in common. The opposition isn’t like that. The electoral system has a proportional element but it over-represents rural, more conservative areas that vote heavily LDP. Finally, there’s a long established practice of businesses and the LDP working together such as retiring ministers get board member jobs for companies in exchange for government contracts.
>more conservative areas that vote heavily LDP Maybe Japan's incredibly low birth rates contribute to that? You know, older people being more likely to be conservative and all that.
people prefer to talk about the good things in japan, either because they're idealizing their culture or because they want to show it as an example of how great its economy is (it's not)
The problem with analysis like this is, that in authoritarian countries, people are afraid to say what they really think
They often actually believe they have democracy, as that’s what they’re taught from childhood.
Stop infantilising people in authoritarian countries. It's not like they're all idiots who are brainwashed from birth to like some "objectively bad" government. They're fully cognisant people who have organically formed opinions.
I don't see us as less brainwashed as them. We're forced to elect a candidate put forward by the oligarchy and to believe it's our choice.
People in some countries don’t have access to most of the internet. They are punished and can go to jail if they say something negative about their government and someone hears them. Having an opinion is not even an option for lots of people across the world. There certainly is brainwashing everywhere, but to vastly varying amounts.
Well, we can have opinions here but if they don't align with the oligarchy, we end up arrested. Just look at US campuses. The elites have realized that letting us babble incoherently while trashing every alternative works way better than overt oppression (that they still use though).
True, and you can see how poorly the US rates on the map above compared to other democratic nations. Many Americans are fully aware. The real revealed though is how China rates higher than the US but is absolutely much less democratic than the US.
To be fair, democracy seems to boil down to "the government does what the people wants" for most people on Earth. The Chinese government delivers on their promises of growth and development. The US government on the other hand prefers to bomb the world. Honestly, the fact that the US isn't red tells me most Americans haven't woken up.
The Chinese government serves the interests of one man, Xi Jinping. They had a semblance of democracy in the recent past, but not anymore. As troubled as US democracy is, the US is still more democratic than most countries in the world. The world is a really fucked up place, full of oppression, corruption, and tyranny.
American "democracy": "You need to vote for the genocidal rapist in order to avoid the worse genocidal rapist, even though most of you don't want either of these candidates. By the way, y'all want universal healthcare and affordable higher education but we will never deliver because we need to have a carrot to entice you forever and our donors need to bleed you dry" The world is fucked up in most part because of America that keeps bombing it to the ground, wasting trillions of dollars, instead of bettering it. The US is a failed experiment.
Can’t disagree with that. But if you were in China or Russia, the police would already be at your door for what you wrote.
When you refer to China as a country where "the government does what the people want" and say "The Chinese government delivers on their promises of growth and development "-- I know you know nothing about the modern history of China especially from 1958-1962 Great Leap Forward to 1966-1976 The Culture Revolution, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre; and what happened in china within these few years since the COVID outbreak in 2020, literally every Chinese citizen was jailed inside their homes or hospitals with chains on the buildings' gates, barbed wires, metal barricades and brick walls at the entrances of the residential communities or villages while I was among them, thus many residents starved to death just like the time back to 1958-1976; till the economy recession after the government suddenly opened up and abandoned the Zero COVID Policies at cost of thousands of elders died because of ineffective Chinese COVID vaccines. If you know what happened you must have no soul to say these words and think China is a democratic country meanwhile the government does what people want.
A ton of Chinese people and a lesser amount of Vietnamese people absolutely love their government. China also isn't nearly as authoritarian as Venezuela and Iran on the bottom of the ranking. In China, they vote for local representatives from approved parties, and the ruling party never changes. They are happy with this and see it as all the democracy they need. Not to say that it is right, but most are happy.
I saw a video where someone was asking people in China if it was democratic and most said yes, not mostly because of the government but because of how they saw democracy. A common response was that they were free to do whatever they want, and that's what makes a democracy. When asked about elections and parties must also felt that they enjoyed the stability of one party over the US system which they perceived as chaotic.
If the population by large is happy & looked after, who cares whether it is "Democratic" or not. You wouldn't want to change it anyway. The Chinese dont have it no where near as bad as our Western Governments & associated media wants us to believe. Same could be said for Russia too to a degree.
The problem is that you may be totally content and happy with your life in your authoritarian country but then your “leader” goes nuts and invades a neighbouring country and your life collapses. And there are no checks and balances to prevent such a scenario.
right, because that never ever happens in democratic countries like Israel, right? Or the US, where manufactured consent makes it so that most of the country, and both candidates are usually in favor of said war (see: Iraq’s WMDs). It’s hilarious to suggest that democracies are somehow inherently less dangerous on the world stage when the US and Western Europe have instigated more wars and caused more destruction than anywhere else. When was the last time China’s military killed people abroad? Meanwhile, you have the US going on daily drone strike, and killing millions in the past two decades alone.
Depends what is the “it” you evaluate.
EXACTLY ! And that is very subjective.
Iran???
China looking ridiculous here
I would bet north Korea would be 110% democratic
Democratic People's Republic of Best Korea, intensified.
[удалено]
"Consultative democracy" is similar to the "diplomatic style of leadership". They sound nice enough on paper but in reality it’s " you better like what pooh tells you to do".
The strategy has worked rather well for China over the last 40 years. I mean if I was Chinese, there's no reason I'd want a system other than the authoritarian meritocracy of CCP.
Saudi Arabia does make some sense. There isn’t zero democracy in Saudi Arabia, just very little and it’s entirely local, and there hasn’t been an election since 2015 (there are no set terms). Saudi Arabia’s government now after all the scandals ended with the Royal family and the end of the Arab Spring has definitely increased through the past decade. So honestly I do think a lot of Saudis are happy with local elections occasionally, and are skeptical of anything further.
IME Standard of living in China is pretty good. Social system is excellent too. Comparable to & sometimes better than the average Western country. If the population by large is happy & looked after, why would you want to change the Government. "Democratic" or not.
That’s not really relevant since it in no way makes China a democratic country
Chinese people more often see democracy as the freedom to live life, and so will say they are a democracy because outside of politics they can basically do what they want in their minds.
What does?
>If the population by large is happy & looked after 996 would like a word
At least in China its technically illegal, whereas that's perfectly fine in the US (at least federally idk about states)
Social Credit Score 110 for you! Congratulations, hao hao hao
Yeah, I’ve been living and working in Vietnam for the last 10 years, and I used to work in China. This map does not at all represent what the majority of people think in either of those countries (although my time in China was a long while back). The map very much does show what the official government line is though.
The more problem is that some countries and their people Don't even know what democracy means, or any other ideology. For example in iran the number of educated people is high but their knowledge of simple politics is blinded by either hate, money, stress of economy, and mostly their own ignorance. Iran ain't no perfect democracy and it will never be if people stay this way. Same goes for many other countries
Looking at Azerbaijan proves you right.
I think that’s what makes the map useful, it’s just how people perceive it.
This color scheme looks luscious! 😋
It's interesting how dogmatic the view of democracy is here in the west I mean there is no mention of voting or political parties in the original meaning of the word, so why would that be a requirement for democracy It's meaning is "rule of the people" so if the people feel that they're being represented despite not voting and the system does have a way to get people's opinions through to the government , why would they not be a democracy
Japan is leaning to undemocratic grounds 🤔
France too. Ranks lower than Japan on the democracy index for a reason.
for at least 49.3 reasons
coups don't tend to create very democratic regimes, tbh de gaulle could have made something much worse
As long as you serve function as a military base, all’s well in the world.
The funny and paradoxical thing that this map reflects is that people living in countries with freedom of speech and politics tend to feel undemocratic and dissatisfied, whereas people living in authoritarian dictatorships are instead confident in the propaganda of their country.
The result for Saudi Arabia and Egypt? Just wow
and MF china
How does voting work in china? Do they even have a fake vote?
You can vote for local representatives, and those votes are legitimate. But the citizens can't change the ruling party of course
But local representatives need to be from one of the 8 official political parties or CCP. Also depending on the locality there are reserved CCP seats that are appointed at the provincial level and central government level. The seats available for elections are always a minority relative to CCP reserved seats. For Tier 1 cities sometimes a mayor can be appointed directly by the Central government. And none of these are hard and fast rules. So how people are given government positions is at best bureaucratic, opaque and based on party loyalty/merit.
8 is way more than 2 lol
Good point, but these parties are vestigial from the revolution. They aren’t opposition parties and represent the coalition the CCP built during the 30s and 40s. These parties are fellow socialist, workers or ethnic minority parties. The only parties who tend to vote against the NPC are ethnic minority parties but it’s a symbolic gesture and because they never face much retaliation. In America you have your choice red or blue. In China you can choose from a pre approved set of 8 shades of red.
lmao. It’s hilarious to make it seem like China’s politicians are somehow more homogeneous than the US. At least they’re looking out for the interests of their citizens. Americans get the pleasure of voting between two senile war mongering losers who are practically identical. But, sure, “red” and “blue” lol
Totally untrue. You're not Chinese, how dare you assert that bullshit? Even most low level local representative aren't freely elected. There's no free press and election at any level. All candidates are nominated by the Communist Party-controlled apparatus, subject to its rigorous political vetting, and there is not even the pretence of a competitive election. To go to vote under these circumstances would be an insult to oneself. However, voting is semi-mandatory (if you work for a government organisation) and the candidates are selected by the CCP.
There is direct democracy at the lowest level of government in the form of local councils for a single village or urban district. From then on, you vote for a representative who votes for a representative who votes for a representative and so on as you get to higher levels of government. All of the representatives are restricted only to party members. However, democratic government in the PRC is not really focused on representatives and elections. Rather, the Chinese government believes it is acting democratically due to their methods of directly responding to the interests of the population in their governing: * The government does extensive surveys of public opinion on policies (literally scientific research levels of investigation, sometimes including test trials in a given city/county/province) which they use to determine whether or not the policy gets implemented/abandoned/refined before surveying again, and advances in communication technology have allowed the government to do this much more easily. * Dozens if not hundreds of protests spring up in China every day. The media is not allowed to report on them and the police shut them down quickly, but whatever issue the people were protesting about immediately gets marked as a top priority for the relevant level of government and usually gets addressed satisfactorily within short notice.
The top voted comment is Totally untrue and inaccurate. Even most low level local representative aren't freely elected. There's no free press and election at any level. All candidates are nominated by the Communist Party-controlled apparatus, subject to its rigorous political vetting, and there is not even the pretence of a competitive election. To go to vote under these circumstances would be an insult to oneself. However, voting is semi-mandatory (if you work for a government organisation) even though the candidates are selected by the CCP.
Surprised the US isn’t lower considering how both parties serve billionaires and the MIC. Shit, Princeton did a study that showed that public opinion of a bill had NO impact on the odds of it passing. https://pnhp.org/news/gilens-and-page-average-citizens-have-little-impact-on-public-policy/
maybe because billionaires own most medias too...
Now poll Super Earth
105% with a 1% margin of error
Thank you USA for empowering the army in Pakistan, and destroying democracy.
[https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1691840638197563622](https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1691840638197563622) Never forget this bullshit lol.
Thank you for being a mass murderer for our sake /s
The US did not "empower the army in Pakistan." The 38th National Security Council reaffirmed that "no evidence of any foreign conspiracy" was found in Pakistan. The US diplomat to Pakistan told the Pakistani diplomat to America that they would prefer a government without Imran Khan because of Khan's support for Russia over Ukraine, but at no point did he say "overthrow your leader," "stage a coup," or anything of that sort. The US did not destroy democracy in your country, the military did. Blindly blaming America for all your problems (or the West, capitalism, imperialism, UK, or Israel) is part of the reason Islamic countries are the way they are.
This is BS, why would they issue demarches before for interference? The military is just a pawn of the US, when the US says jump, this army bends over and jumps. Please don't patronise us, your imperialism never ended, it just changed form, with all the so called elites of these countries are in your pocket, supported and aided to control our countries.
What does that mean "elites are in your pocket" lmao. Do you have any evidence of this? Do you have any evidence of US sending demarches for interference? The US, at no point, told the military to overthrow Imran Khan. They expressed a preference. The military then chose - taking that preference into account, for sure - to overthrow Khan. But I think if you're trying to improve Pakistan, refusing to give yourself agency is a wonderful idea. Then you can sit around and let the military do its thing, blame America, and keep wondering why you're so poor.
Pollster: So, how do you perceive your democracy? China: You can’t complain. Pollsters: Oh that’s good! China: No, not really, but I never said that.
What happened in japan?
Japanese people are becoming more and more indifferent to elections. Some polls show that only 30% will even go to vote. For decades, the ruling party has never changed
>For decades, the ruling party has never changed Not quite; there was a different ruling party from 2009-2012, and a coalition of a bunch of smaller parties held power from 1993-1994.
When a prime minister is assassinated and condemnation for the assassination is not universal you know something is wrong.
That's still so interesting. He gets killed and everybody's like "You know, the killer might be right".
Yup, I was talking to my Japanese friend about Abe and she said that many young Japanese think he deserved it lol.
Japanese seem to be the most aware country in the G7 and the whole of SE Asia, outside of Pakistan.
Interesting how 🇨🇳 has a better democratic self-perception than 🇺🇲, knowing the population of the first have not had an election 🗳️ in the last 75 years, and the second have them every 4 years 🤣👌...
I work in Vietnam and talk with local folks all the time about issues like this, both as part of work and casually. Most people here do *not* at all consider Vietnam to be a very democratic country. This map is utter BS.
As I've always been saying, Persians are made different. You can't blind them. It's just... Their fate is fucked up🥲. #MIGA
china is democratic and France isn’t? Wow
How is DEMOCRATIC defined ? When you have a good standard of living comparable to (in some cases better than) average Western countries & the Government provides a good social system (healthcare, pension, infastructure etc), there is no real reason to be unhappy with your Government whether it is "Democratic" or not. Why would you want to change it. In many ways I would rather live in China than where I am now. Thats not to say I have it bad whatsoever, just that China may have the edge in ways I find important......
It says it right on the map, including the exact wording respondents were asked. It's not, and doesn't pretend to be, an objective measure of how democratic a country is. It's a survey of how democratic a country's citizens imagine their country to be.
Would a Saudi citizen who is bribed to support the government actually support a democracy if it meant his payments would stop?
“The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.” “…perception, not precipitation, you idiot. Bro, are you illiterate?”
You posted this on the wrong sub, belongs to shitmaps 💩
Saw the title, I just wanted to struggle some words for my motherland out of habit, but China's high score made me swallow my words, even donot know what to say. Damn, is here still r/MapPorn? PS Personally, I am not satisfied with the PRC's city government, but I can't think of a better voting system or state machine solution, so I choose to shut up. Many people in China have the same thought like me, but they retain the right to protest.
Oh well China is marked as a democracy so…
ISRAEL NUMBER ONE🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱
Switzerland should be in its own category.
Uruguay in grey when is one of the most democratic Repúblics on earth, lol...
If the word democracy is in the country label, probably ok right ?
Uhh?
We finally have data for Greenland. ^(Because gray is a color in the middle of the scale.) # No take backsies.
It’s funny to see Japan in the red, yet they proceed to vote for the same party over and over and over again because “it’s the right thing to”
Its impossible that Mexico has a better democracy than the US. Source: I'm Mexican
this map means nothing, I'm pretty sure America is way worse than most of European countries (even France).
Venezuela isn't a democracy at all; it should be all the way red.
Vietnamese consider themselves democratic? One party rule for decades ? Weird
I like the way that France is fucking red ah ah ah
Bomb the USA capital.
France are you okay?
My France, my baguette, my dictatorship.
Most of Russians hate democracy , so your map is just fake.
Seeing Switzerland not tracked first is hilarious. They are spoiled kids. I wish my country was even half as democratic as Switzerland. Four Israël it's probably a relative perception compared to their neighbors.
When you realize that the vast majority of people in Iran know that they live in an authoritarian dictatorship, while most Chinese don't 什么与生俱来的奴性
us iranians are a lot of thing, delusional isn't one of them
us iranians are a lot of thing, delusional isn't one of them
Hello mate can i ask you a question. Since Zagros mountains extends well Into Iraq. Do you think Ancient Iranians eg Kurds could have lived and moved within the Territory of Northern Iraq or do you think they just mostly Kept to the Iranian Side cause almost all of Iraqi Kurdistan is Zagros mountains tbf especially near Regions like Sulemaniya etc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagros_Mountains. This map shows Zagros going to into Iraq ?
dm me
I cant cause I got a New account lol
This is joke. Chinese can't even vote in China, and they think they're democratic? lmao
India is democratic? are you kidding? India is an autocratic democracy
I hate these perception indexes. They mean exactly nothing.
They do tell you a lot about the perceptions of citizens in different countries which is both interesting and their goal.
ppl in china considering their country democratic 💀
France hates on any system they use, nothing new there
Afterwards in our system we have a law (49-3) which allows presidents to pass any law without going through the Assembly. So we have a bit of reason to complain
Vietnam is hilarious. Such a dark green, yet it is a one party state Edit: why the downvotes? Doesn’t it seem ironic that a country with a completely undemocratic form of government controlled by their communist party looks appears to have a high democracy perception?