The League of Democracies

 

I have long advocated the formation of a League of Democracies, to do what the United Nations is not capable of doing. So who would be a member? I had a look at the latest Economist Intelligence Unit ranking of democracies. 

Interestingly, the United States would not qualify. It is listed as a “flawed democracy.”

The criteria The Economist uses are relatively opaque, but The Economist is no partisan rag; I broadly share its liberal bias; and those who have witnessed the recent US election are likely to agree. Yet this ranking was assigned before that election. The Economist faults the US primarily on government dysfunction and growing partisanship. The current tumult over passing a COVID relief bill is an indication. The bill passes at the last possible moment to prevent a government shutdown, and nobody gets to read it before they must vote on it.

Knowing how flawed Canada’s democracy is, by a lack of proper Parliamentary debate, a lack of free speech, and a lack of diversity in the media, I am hesitant to extend membership in a League of Democracies to any nation that cannot meet at least this meagre standard; yet Canada is solidly in the top rank. So I’d indeed exclude the US for now. Let them hold a couple of elections under League supervision first. Perhaps (being cheeky) they would do better to shift to a Westminster parliamentary system, in which more diverse opinions could be represented, and legislature and executive are never long at loggerheads.

Member states by this metric, then, are the CANZUK nations, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom; the Nordic countries, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland; Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Mauritius.

It is noticeable than most on the list do have a parliamentary system, rather than the American presidential system. And a surprising number of them are monarchies. Is this a British bias, the EIU being headquartered in London? If so, I suppose I share it.