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The U.S.: An "Illiberal" Democracy? |
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Dear Reader, |
Dartmouth College stables an outfit named Bright Line Watch. |
This bunch runs an annual survey to register the health of American democracy. |
Since 2017 it has solicited the medical opinions of 703 political science faculty from American colleges and universities — along with 2,750 members of the broader public. |
Its latest survey, out recently, centered its concerns on such topics as: |
Political violence, redistricting, and support for democratic norms, as part of the group's regular surveys monitoring democratic practices, their resilience, and potential threats in the United States. |
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What did the latest survey reveal about the health of American democracy? |
The United States: "Illiberal Democracy?" |
The latest survey revealed that United States democracy more resembles "mixed" or "illiberal" democracy than "full" democracy: |
Current expert ratings of U.S. democracy are closer to those of a mixed or illiberal democracy than a full democracy or countries often considered as relevant comparisons such as Great Britain and Canada… |
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The current expert rating of 54 continues to place the United States between the scores that experts gave in April 2025 to Israel (49) and Mexico (60) and well below our nominal democratic peers of Great Britain (83) and Canada (88). |
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Just so. Yet here I must file a tort against Bright Line Watch. |
Is Mexico — a nation largely in the grip of violent drug cartels — nearer to full democracy than the United States? |
I believe the claim finds little excuse in the facts. |
Meantime, I observe that the democratic idylls of Great Britain and Canada often demonstrate marked hostility to free speech. |
They lack First Amendment parallels. |
And free speech is central to full democracy… or so the civics books instruct us. |
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"We're Number 28! We're Number 28!" |
All the while, the latest edition of The Economist's Intelligence Unit Democracy Index ranks the United States the 28th most democratic on Earth. |
Thus the United States sorts into the category of "flawed democracies." |
Listed here are the world's top 10 "full democracies," first to last: |
Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands… and Luxembourg. |
Again, I recommend you take it aboard with a heaping dose of table salt. |
The rankings reflect certain biases. Many center upon the sitting United States president and his "authoritarianism." |
Perhaps you agree with The Economist's biases. Perhaps you disagree with The Economist's biases. |
It is all one to me. I simply suspect that its rankings lack the stark objectivity of true scientific inquiry. |
Regardless, I let it go. |
The U.S. Wasn't Meant to Be a Full Democracy |
It would displease me if the United States was ranked a "full democracy." |
That is because its designers established a republic — a republic with democratic leanings — yet a republic. |
Did not Mr. Madison argue that, "democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention?" |
Did he not further argue that democracies: |
Have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths? |
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He did in fact argue both claims |
Meantime, as old Ben Franklin may have never said: |
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner." |
I declare for the lamb. And I declare against the wolves. |
Democracy Does Have Its Unique Charms |
I have cited democracy's cardinal defects. Yet I also concede that democracy has its highly unique charms. |
For example, democracy offers entertainments unknown under other governmental systems. |
It is the circus of circuses, paraded out daily in a dozen rings or more. |
Under no other form of government will you find the run of fools, knaves, frauds, rascals, jacklegs, rogues, scoundrels, swindlers, penny-catchers and chiselers so common to democracy. |
Yet such showmen proliferate under democracy. And the fuller the democracy, the greater their proliferation. |
Dictatorships Are Boring |
A dictatorship, for example, offers no comparable entertainment. It is featureless and colorless. |
All oars pull in one direction. And the fantastic combats of democracy are unknown. |
Thus the opportunities for political showmen are severely constrained. |
Besides, a dictator — or a king — does not face election. |
He therefore needs not babble the preposterous and idiotic things an office-seeker under democracy must babble. |
Thus he lacks the entertainment value of his democratic counterpart. |
The U.S. Is Actually the Fullest Democracy on Earth |
And so I temper my criticism of democracy. |
Its vast entertainment value provides tremendous benefit that cannot be gainsaid — Madison notwithstanding. |
And as I write these words, I conclude that Bright Line Watch and The Economist are mistaken. |
They label the United States a "mixed," "illiberal" or "flawed" democracy. |
Yet I propose that the United States is nearer to full democracy than any other democracy on Earth. |
Why? |
Recall, the fuller the democracy… the greater the proliferation of fools, knaves, frauds, rascals, jacklegs, rogues, scoundrels, swindlers, penny-catchers and chiselers. |
And which democracy boasts more of such men than the United States? |
Regards, |
Brian Maher |
for Freedom Financial News |
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