Rank of Four Countries by Various Democracy Rankings

Rank of Four Countries by Various Democracy Rankings to cover independent countries with population greater than 100,000. Vanhanen believes that the reason for the thirst for power is to get hold of the resources, increase in the power the people posses simplifies their access to scarce resources. Vanhanen democracy ranking offers an unconventional interpretation of democracy and autocracy. Autocracy is considered as the state where concentration of resources is higher in a single group. Democracy is achieved in situations where distribution of resources is among different groups. The conditions favorable for democracy are those which the spread of resources is broad and no individual group is neither able to retain its hold of the available resources over a long time nor is it able suppress the competitors. Variables indicating democratization level include competition (C) and participation (P). Competition and participation measures are combined into the democratization index through the use of the formula ID= (PC)/100. This formula is applicable in most countries independent of the civilization, economic, cultural, and geographic among other features that may be subordinate to the logic of evolution in political studies. Threshold qualifications for democracy are 10% for P, 30% for C, and 5% for the ID. (Melville et al, 2011). The human development index meets the wide concept of developments of the society and economy. From another perspective, although sometimes questioned the human development index is used as an indications of democracy. It is agreeable to say that the human development index offers the capability representing a greater measure of democracy. Although it is realized that the human development index considers life expectancy, GDP and other factors but fails to accommodate political structures. Democracy and political systems are correlated with democracy ranking placing great emphasis on the position of political structures on democracy In most cases a number of factors affect the democratic ranking of a country and they are politics 50%, gender 10%, economy 10%, knowledge 10% and health 10%(Campbell, 2008). According to polity project ranking the France system has a democracy of -8. This is because France in the recent years has witnessed political trends that have had the consequences of the country being downgraded and considered a flawed democracy state. Participation of public in politics has reduced and this has led to declined confidence of the public in political parties. With the nature of the French political system the president possesses great power and this is indicting a threatened democratic tradition. The current president, Nicholas Sarkozy uses an autocratic style, and this has seen the rise in anti-Muslim feelings and increased pressure on the media and journalist which has seen a decrease in the freedoms of the media (Liotier, 2011). Political parties are relatively few in France, workers unions are weak and the police system t is constantly accused with increased brutality the France government is highly undemocratic (Petzinger, 2011). With the justifications provided thereafter, the ranking of the United Kingdom using Dahls polyarchy measure is 5. Gender equity was already attained in the United Kingdom in the year 1928.The United Kingdom is believed to hold the reputation of being the mother of all parliaments but its system has complications that are mainly centered in key three areas. The ranking of the United Kingdom is downgraded by the fact that majority of its representation in parliament is distorted in that the actual seats in parliament is not solely determined by the votes. Other factors that reduce the ranking of democracy are; a media that mostly favors the interests of the private sector and the trust in the police force that is constantly declining (Petzinger, 2011). Basing on the Vanhanen index of democracy, Germany ranks at 10% in the ID. Germany accounts its high ranking in the democratic ranking to the comparatively large number of parliamentarians who are women and an impeccable separation between the arms of government that is the executive, the legislature and the judiciary with Bavaria being the most developed state. In most federal states a participation quorum of approximately 25% exists in any local referendum (Petzinger, 2011). Because of the suppressed political opposition and rights of the public, Russia ranks at 3 according to Dahls polyarchy measure. The trend in Russia system of government is that of unfair elections, intolerance of political oppositions, and courts that are characterized by high dependence. Currently Russia works on bribes and the opposition is literally invisible to the public, they cannot be allowed on television. Though there are constant demonstrations favoring democracy, they are largely ignored and authoritarian form of government presided over by Vladimir Putin is the order of the day (Lally Englund 2011). Out of the four democracy rankings considered in this essay, none of them is adequate enough to be satisfactory in the ranking of democracy. It is also noted that none of the democracy ranking measures includes (economic democracy) face four of Sodaros 4 faces which are: popular sovereignty, rights and liberties, democratic values, and economic democracy (Campbell, 2008). A number of factors have been found to contribute to democracy and as such must be included in the elements that are considered in the measure of democracy.