Greece only SEE country listed as "full democracy" in Economist index

[akritas]

A new Economist Intelligence Unit survey of 167 countries places Greece among the world's 28 "full democracies" and seven other Southeast European countries in the group of "flawed democracies". Three other countries in the region are seen as "hybrid regimes".

EUobserver, Sofia News Agency, HINA, Makfax - 23/11/06; Bloomberg - 21/11/06; Economist Intelligence Unit)


Greece is the only Southeast European (SEE) country included in the group of the most democratic nations in the world, according to a new survey released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) this week.


Ranking 22nd among the surveyed 165 countries and two territories, Greece is classified as a "full democracy," along with 27 other nations. The rest of the countries fall into one of other three groups listed in the EIU democracy index -- "flawed democracies," "hybrid regimes" and "authoritarian regimes".
The index is based on the scores the countries are given for 60 indicators across five broad categories: electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties.

For each of these categories, the surveyed nations are given scores from 0 to 10. The overall index of democracy is the simple average of the five category indexes. Almost without exception, the SEE countries' best scores are for the electoral process and pluralism and civil liberties categories.

With an overall score of 9.88 and marks of 10.00 in four of the five categories, Sweden is the highest-ranked nation in the table.
Greece's overall score of 8.13 places it behind Belgium and Japan, which share the 20th position and ahead of Britain and France, ranked 23rd and 24th, respectively. Its best marks are for electoral process and pluralism (9.58), and civil liberties (9.41), while its lowest (6.67) is for political participation.


Most of the other countries in the region are categorised in the second grouping, "flawed democracies". Leading them is Cyprus, which joined the EUin May 2004 along with Poland and eight other Central and East European countries. It shares 36th position with Botswana on the basis of an overall score of 7.60.
Like Greece and most of the other SEE countries, it has been given its highest marks for electoral process and for pluralism and civil liberties -- 9.17 and 9.12, respectively. Cyprus's lowest score of 6.25 is for political culture.


Six other SEE countries -- Bulgaria (49th), Romania (50th), Croatia (51st), Serbia (55th), Montenegro (58th) and FYROM(68th) -- also fall in the "flawed democracies" group.

Bulgaria's overall score of 7.60 is only 0.04 points better than that of its northern neighbour, Romania. The two countries, which will join the EU on January 1st, are given the same marks of 9.58 and 8.53 for electoral process and for pluralism and civil liberties. Both also got their lowest mark of 5.00 for political culture.


Although scoring slightly better than Bulgaria and Romania in this specific category, Croatia, which has an overall score of 7.04, also got its worst mark (5.63) for political culture.
Serbia and Montenegro are given overall scores of 6.62 and 6.57, respectively. They have the same best mark of 9.17 for electoral process and pluralism and the same worst mark of 5.00 for political participation.


FYROM has an overall score of 6.33. Its lowest mark of 3.75 is for political culture.


Ranked 83rd, 87th and 88th, respectively, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey are in the 30-nation "hybrid regimes" group. Their overall scores range from 5.91 points for Albania to 5.78 for BiH and 5.70 for Turkey. Their highest marks are for electoral process and pluralism. Albania's worst mark of 4.44 is for political participation, while BiH's lowest score of 3.29 is for functioning of government. Turkey's lowest mark of 3.75 is for political culture.

source:
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setime.../24/feature-01

[Makedonia25]

Well well well, I wonder what our Skopjean friends will say about this one??? hehehe

[akritas]

Originally Posted by Makedonia25

Well well well, I wonder what our Skopjean friends will say about this one??? hehehe

Greek propaganda

They know and ARE NERVOUS

[nsminc]

"FYROM has an overall score of 6.33. Its lowest mark of 3.75 is for political culture."

Hahaha!

[Tsontos]

FYROMacedonia(68th)

Thats what you get in a country where war criminals are still in power...

[Draco]

Of course Greece is a full democracy, we don't need the Economist to tell us that; we've been in the EU for years. We do have our occasional human rights problems, but then again so does every country in the EU. This is about democracy (accountability of the government), not minor human rights issues (and non recognition of ficticious minorities).

[Costandis]

I disagree. The way the terrorist organisation '17N' was handled by the (mostly PASOK & SYN) state apparatus, and the freedom it enjoyed to murder and intimidate up to 2000, indicates that Greece cannot be labelled as such - yet.

[Draco]

Originally Posted by Costandis

I disagree. The way the terrorist organisation '17N' was handled by the (mostly PASOK & SYN) state apparatus, and the freedom it enjoyed to murder and intimidate up to 2000, indicates that Greece cannot be labelled as such - yet.

On second thoughts I think you are right, Greece is not democratic; true democracies have mechanisms for enforcing public opinion. A prime example of this is Switzerland where if a certain cause is backed by a petition backed by at least 100,000 people then the government is constitutionally obliged to call a referendum on the issue. If we had an arrangement like that in Greece, we would have long had a referendum on the Skopiano issue and it we would likely how have had an unquestionable Greek position on the matter.

[Costandis]

Greek referendum on Skopiano would probably result in 'no Macedonia' in their name - or perhaps Republika Gorna Makedonija, or Republika Novamakedonija.
But even if Greece accepts 'Republic of Macedonia', some people in FYROM and Canada, Australia... have been so radicalised - if not fanaticised - that anti-Greek propaganda will probably intensify into violence in the name of 'justice and liberation' against Greeks.

[Tsontos]

Greece ranked #1 for protecting civil liberties and personal privacy.



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