2014: a good year for democracy?
This article is about how last year in 2014 a record breaking amount of votes of 1.5 billion votes were taken. It discusses whether 2015 will be any better.
- More than 1.5 billion people voted around the world in 2014 in over 100 elections that endorsed the appeal of democracy as an idea, if not always as a system of government.
- On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, fewer than 3,000 people cast ballots for a new legislative assembly, but they represented almost three-quarters of eligible voters.
- In India, by contrast, the presidential election was such a huge logistical challenge that it went on for weeks, allowing more than 500 million people to take part – a full two-thirds of citizens with the right to vote.
- “Nations with a sceptical public actually have a more effective and accountable government because citizens press government to be responsive and perform,”
- “For the eighth consecutive year, [we] recorded more declines in democracy worldwide than gains,” the 41st annual edition of its Freedom in the World report found, warning of serious setbacks in “large politically influential countries” including Egypt, Russia, Turkey and Indonesia, and the rise of “modern authoritarianism”.
- “Even if citizens see democracy as a positive feature, political elites in these nations do not want to yield power. So elections are used to give the appearance of democracy without the threatened loss of power to elites.”
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/dec/30/2014-a-good-year-for-democracy
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