305’2024 (2024-10-31) – Thursday
Today, I learned about:
Continuing my post of last month abount the armed conflicts in the world, there is an interesting theory called the Democratic peace theory, which states that there is a strong connection between peace and democracy. However, as with any such theory, there are different opinions about the reasons, does peace lead to democracy or vice-versa, etc. See also reference #1 below.
I think it would be interesting to dissicate that theory further and see if it may apply to the current situation in the world. So, through the Global Peace Index (GPI), we have a measure of the state of unrest today, but what we can say about the democratic situation in the world? Luckily, there is the Democracy Index, which is published by the British group the Economist.
The current Democracy Index 2023 was published on 46’2024 (2024-02-15) and you may find it commented in references # 2 and 3 below. Here is just an exercept:
The Democracy Index states that there are four types of regimes:
- Full democracies, 24 countries, 14,4 % of all countries covered in this study, with 7,8 % of the world’s population;
- Flawed democracies, 50 countries, 29,9 % of all countries covered in this study, with 37,6 % of the world’s population;
- Hybrid regimes, 34 countries, 20,4 % of all countries covered in this study, with 15,2 % of the world’s population; and
- Authoritarian regimes, 59 countries, 35,3 % of all countries covered in this study, with 39,4 % of the world’s population.
The following world map, extracted from page 5 in the Democracy Index report for 2023 shows the situation in a nutshell. See also reference #4 below for the complete report.
I am interested in trying to compare the information in the Global Peace Index report and the Democracy Index report and see if there is any real substance in the Democratic Peace Theory. It may take a while, but once I have it, you will be the first one to know, I promise!
That’s what I learned in school today!
Ref.:
2: The Economist Democracy Index
3: Conflict and polarisation drive a new low for global democracy
What did you learn in School today? 