World’s leading democracy may not be United States – Restoration NewsMedia

Some Americans consider the U.S. to be a perfect democracy. But according to the Democracy Perception Index issued each year, when their citizens are asked about having the right amount of democracy, Taiwan, South Korea, China and Vietnam top the list. 

The Alliance of Democracies commissions this annual worldwide survey and found that 42% of American survey respondents indicated the U.S. had too little democracy. In addition, 44% of people worldwide remain concerned that the U.S. threatens democracy in their country.

The annual “Democracy Index” report is released by The Economist, a respected British publication that has documented the progress and decline in world governments since 2006. Twenty-four countries qualify as full democracies, with the most democratic including Norway, New Zealand, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland and Ireland.

The United States ranks lower as a “flawed democracy,” 30th out of 167 countries. The U.S. formerly was classified as a full democracy when this survey began in 2006, but we dropped to “flawed democracy” status in 2016 due to “polarization,” legislative gridlock and dysfunction, governmental interference with medical practice, teaching, library service, etc.

Another in-depth academic analysis is the World Values Survey, which started in 1981. It is coordinated by leaders in Vienna, Austria and Stockholm, Sweden. Data are archived in Madrid, Spain. WVS uses personal interviews to survey differences in “beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world.” WVS has analyzed nearly 400,000 interviews to reveal changes in social values over time.

Specifically, “the WVS measures, monitors and analyzes: support for democracy, tolerance of foreigners and ethnic minorities, support for gender equality, the role of religion and changing levels of religiosity, the impact of globalization, attitudes toward the environment, work, family, politics, national identity, culture, diversity, insecurity and subjective well-being.”

With extensive interviews across all of the world’s cultural zones and ranging from poor to rich countries, these variations fall into “1) traditional values versus secular-rational values, and 2) survival values versus self-expression values.” These are defined as follows.

“Traditional values emphasize the importance of religion, parent-child ties, deference to authority and traditional family values. People who embrace these values also reject divorce, abortion, euthanasia and suicide. These societies have high levels of national pride and a nationalistic outlook.”

“Secular-rational values have the opposite preferences to the traditional values. These societies place less emphasis on religion, traditional family values and authority. Divorce, abortion, euthanasia and suicide are seen as relatively acceptable.”

“Survival values place emphasis on economic and physical security. It is linked with a relatively ethnocentric outlook and low levels of trust and tolerance.”

“Self-expression values give high priority to environmental protection, growing tolerance of foreigners, gays and lesbians and gender equality and rising demands for participation in decision-making in economic and political life.”

Many Americans think all people in the world should think like us and be like us and that our system of government is easily the best. The WVS exposes the differences among modern countries as well as the recent changes occurring in the U.S.

The WVS also corrects common assumptions, finding that “95% of Chinese respondents have significant confidence in their government,” a rate far higher than the United States’ 33% and the world average of 45%.  The World Values Survey found “China ranks particularly high when it comes to frugality, hard work and educating its children.” In addition, it found “93% of Chinese people value security over freedom, whereas 72% of Americans value freedom over security.”

In the eyes of many around the world, the U.S. has not been any example of an ideal democracy or world partner for some time.

John Richard Schrock is a Roe R. Cross distinguished professor and biology professor emeritus at Emporia State University.