Universität Zürich / University Zurich
University of Zurich: Denmark, Finland and Belgium have best democracies
Ein Dokument
Zurich (ots)
- Indication: PDF-File can be downloaded free of charge
under: http://www.presseportal.ch/de/pm/100020780/?langid=2 -A new democracy barometer from the University of Zurich and the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) shows the development of the thirty best democracies in the world. Denmark, Finland and Belgium have the highest quality of democracy, whereas Great Britain, France, Poland, South Africa and Costa Rica the lowest. Moreover, the barometer shows no evidence of a crisis of democracy.
Diagnoses of a crisis of democracy are as old as democracy itself. However, until now there was no instrument that allowed a systematic measurement of the quality and stability of democracy in highly developed industrialized countries. A democracy barometer that has analyzed the development of the most important aspects of the world's thirty foremost democracies since 1990 has now been presented at the University of Zurich.
The barometer uses 100 empirical indicators to measure how well a country complies with the three democratic principles of freedom, equality and control. The comparison of thirty established democracies between 1995 and 2005 has revealed that Denmark is leading the way, followed by Finland and Belgium. "In the comparison, the lowest quality is exhibited by the democracies in Poland, South Africa and Costa Rica," says Marc Bühlmann from the University of Zurich. While Italy finds itself towards the bottom end of the scale, it is surprising that Great Britain (26th) and France (27th) are also so far down the ranking. Equally surprising is the fact that Switzerland (14th) is only mediocre and lags behind 11th- placed Germany.
The democracy barometer can also be used to measure the quality of democratic systems over time. "There was, however, no evidence of an overall crisis or a decline in the quality of democracy," according to Bühlmann. Quite the contrary: if the quality of democracy in all thirty countries is seen as a whole, an increase in the quality of democracy from 1995 to 2000 can be observed and it is still at a higher level in 2005 than in 1995. Nine democracies exhibit a lower quality than in 1995 (ITA, CZE, POR, USA, CRC, FRA, IRL, AUS and GER), whereas the quality of democracy has risen in the remaining twenty-one countries.
The complete press release can be downloaded under: http://www.presseportal.ch/de/pm/100020780/?langid=2
Press Release and ranking: www.mediadesk.uzh.ch
Contact:
Marc Bühlmann University of Zurich
Mobile: +41/79/354'88'79
E-Mail: marc.buehlman@zda.uzh.ch
Wolfgang Merkel
Social Science Research Center Berlin
Tel.: +49/30/254'91'330
E-Mail: wolfgang.merkel@wzb.eu