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> This is pretty much describing the US, which is both not a democracy (it’s a republic. And a bad example of one) and not what I’m talking about.

I'm glad we agree on this, but I'll add that all so-called democracies suffer from the same problem.

> I’m talking about democracy and dictatorships as forms of governance in the abstract.

Yes, talking in the abstract is all we can do, because honestly, I can't find any true examples of democracy at the moment.



As is so often the case in these sorts of "countries that function quite well", the Scandinavians aren't doing too badly:

https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking

USA is #36, a "deficient democracy". Not a surprise and sadly I can see it only dropping further in the near future.

The scale, interestingly, goes:

- Working Democracy

- Deficient Democracy

- Hybrid Regime

- Moderate Autocracy

- Hard Autocracy

Further details on methodology -> https://www.democracymatrix.com/conception/democracy-matrix


https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1891776006236618793

Germany is fifth. Tells me all I need to know about this ranking.


Pure democracy is not very good. It's just governance by mob rule (which is bad for the same reason populism is bad)

Which is why republics have been succesful. Ideally me, as an idividual, should be able to trust a local leader enough to have them represent me in government. That way I am free to live my life and trust the local leader to handle politics in my best interests.

It rarely ends up that clean, but it happens sometimes.




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