Throughout the history of the world there have been countless wrongs inflicted upon the innocent. Many have been cases of innocents being caught 'in the middle' of a conflict. Many were subjects of totalitarian rule. Some, even citizens of modern democracies. Those responsible for inflicting pain, suffering, and the loss of life invariably are focused on a goal, or agenda of some sort. It may be retaliation, aggression, political ambition, an act of defense, or offense, or ideological disparity.
With each new generation comes a new set of conflicts with intended and unintended damages. History tells us that stable democratic regimes are far less likely to inflict hardship and suffering on its citizens. Dictatorships and authoritarian regimes seem to be far less concerned with the plight of the plebeians. In the present day world, the majority of countries have a democratic government. Of the 167 countries with 500k or more population, 58% are democracies of some sort. Some four dozen or so have elements of both democracy and autocracy. 13% or 21 countries are autocracies. The number of countries that are democratically governed has been on an upward trend since the 70's. As the Cold War came to an end and the Soviet-led bloc crumbled, democracy began to spread globally. Of the 75 countries that were known as autocracies in 1987, only 15 were still rated that way three decades later. More than a third had become democracies.
Amongst the countries with the most advanced democracies, it is surprising to many, including myself, that the United States is not among the top ten. Most advanced democracies tend to score high in areas like political participation, civil liberties, functioning of government, and electoral process. The country most often ranked number one is Norway. Norway has high voter participation, transparent institutions, strong civil liberties, and trust in government. Having spent time in Norway, I can personally attest that the vast majority of Norwegians are multilingual, well-educated and very nice people. Several countries in Northern Europe are amongst the top ten. New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands are also on the list.
As of the 2024 Democracy Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the United States is ranked 28th out of 167 countries and is classified as a "flawed democracy." The EIU evaluates countries based on five categories; electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. The US scores high in electoral process and pluralism, it lags in political culture and functioning of government, reflecting challenges such as political polarization and institutional gridlock. Partisan pressure on the electoral process has also become a degrading issue.
The two categories that bemoan even the most ardent nationalists are political culture and functioning of government. Regrettably, that is an aspect of our democracy that has deteriorated over the past fifty years. Our two-party system of government has become increasingly divisive, polarized, and adversarial. Interestingly, the U.S. doesn't rank in the top ten with regard to standard of living either. While we rank very high in productivity, i.e. GDP per Capita, at #3, the average life expectancy is lower than all of the countries in the top ten by several years.
In spite of being a world leader in many respects, the U.S. democratic system of government lags behind in many others. While some metrics indicate we have a lower standard of living than several other nations, there is a key characteristic that must be pointed out. The countries identified as leaders in democratic government and standard of living, all of them in the top ten, practice a more socialistic, welfare state form of government. Social services such as universal healthcare, free or low-cost education, substantial unemployment benefits, strong public pensions, subsidized housing and transportation, social housing and welfare support... All of this and more provided by the government. Which of course translates to higher taxes to support it all. No government in history, anywhere on the planet has ever earned a cent in earned income.
If other countries enjoy stronger, higher-rated democracies and higher standards of living than the U.S., why don't we emulate their social and democratic structures ourselves so that we might enjoy the same benefits? The answer is simple, because we don't want the government to play a large, dominant role in our lives. We don't want to depend on the government to feed and house us. We want opportunities to work, prosper and remain independent. We want our opportunities to be limited only by our own aspirations, not the government. In spite of many ongoing attempts to instill socialistic structure into our government and culture, the American people have resisted. We want minimal government and more personal freedom. We enjoy lower personal income taxes and generally lower costs of living that most countries. We want personal sovereignty as well as national. Americans have defined their own metrics for quality of life. And that's the way we want it.
