R Download Eiu Democracy Index Data
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is statistical analysis for the democracy index data of 167 countries for the period 2006 to 2012 to investigate whether democracy index is progressing day by day? Does democracy make any significant improvement in public life and public trust in political institutions? What are the implications for future progress of democracy? Democracy index is a measure of democratic performance introduced by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU calculated democracy index since 2006 for 167 countries covering almost the entire population of the world. Design/methodology/approach – As democracy index varies from country to country and over time, the author considers randomized complete bock design for the analysis of variance to test whether there are significant variations among the countries and between time (years). The author also applied Friedman's test, which is a non-parametric distribution-free test. Findings – It was found that democracy did not make any significant progress in the study period. Popular confidence in political institutions continues to decline in many full democratic countries. Violence and drug-trafficking have a negative impact on democracy in some countries. Some countries had democratic progress, while some other countries had regression. However, these changes in democratic performances are not statistically significant. As a result, democracy becomes stagnant all over the world. Research limitations/implications – The analysis is based on only five years of available data. Practical implications – As democracy becomes stagnant all over the world and the public trust on political institutions and politicians is declining, it is essential to find out the root cause. Social implications – Democracy is a popular alternative to hybrid or authoritarian regimes, but the nations' recent democratic transitions had brought no improvements to their lives in the society. God has created us in this world with the rest of creation for a very good reason which was explained in all main religious books. To increase our honesty, character, trust and understanding for becoming a good human, we should follow the divine rules and guidance. Eventually everything will work properly, including democracy. Originality/value – The author analyzed democracy index data produced by the EIU using statistical techniques, analysis of variance and non-parametric Friedman's test. Statistical analysis, discussion and conclusion are the author ' s contribution.
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Humanomics
Statistical analysis of democracy index
M. Shafiqur Rahman
Article information:
To cite this document:
M. Shafiqur Rahman , (2014),"Statistical analysis of democracy index", Humanomics, Vol. 30 Iss 4 pp. 373 -
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Barbara Wejnert, (2010),"Chapter 1 World trends and the trajectory of democratization", Research in
Political Sociology, Vol. 18 pp. 5-23
Christopher Kollmeyer, (2010),"Chapter 8 Globalization and democracy: The triumph of liberty over
equality", Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 18 pp. 177-198
David H. Kamens, (2010),"Chapter 3 New citizens, new models of democracy: Theorizing the 'disconnect'
between citizens and states", Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 18 pp. 55-85
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Statistical analysis of
democracy index
M. Shaqur Rahman
Department of Operations Management & Business Statistics,
College of Economics & Political Science, Sultan Qaboos University,
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is statistical analysis for the democracy index data of 167
countries for the period 2006 to 2012 to investigate whether democracy index is progressing day by day?
Does democracy make any signicant improvement in public life and public trust in political
institutions? What are the implications for future progress of democracy? Democracy index is a
measure of democratic performance introduced by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU
calculated democracy index since 2006 for 167 countries covering almost the entire population of the
world.
Design/methodology/approach – As democracy index varies from country to country and over
time, the author considers randomized complete bock design for the analysis of variance to test whether
there are signicant variations among the countries and between time (years). The author also applied
Friedman's test, which is a non-parametric distribution-free test.
Findings – It was found that democracy did not make any signicant progress in the study period.
Popular condence in political institutions continues to decline in many full democratic countries.
Violence and drug-trafcking have a negative impact on democracy in some countries. Some countries
had democratic progress, while some other countries had regression. However, these changes in
democratic performances are not statistically signicant. As a result, democracy becomes stagnant all
over the world.
Research limitations/implications – The analysis is based on only ve years of available data.
Practical implications – As democracy becomes stagnant all over the world and the public trust on
political institutions and politicians is declining, it is essential to nd out the root cause.
Social implications – Democracy is a popular alternative to hybrid or authoritarian regimes, but the
nations' recent democratic transitions had brought no improvements to their lives in the society. God
has created us in this world with the rest of creation for a very good reason which was explained in all
main religious books. To increase our honesty, character, trust and understanding for becoming a good
human, we should follow the divine rules and guidance. Eventually everything will work properly,
including democracy.
Originality/value – The author analyzed democracy index data produced by the EIU using statistical
techniques, analysis of variance and non-parametric Friedman's test. Statistical analysis, discussion
and conclusion are the author's contribution.
Keywords Analysis of variance, Hypothesis testing, Democracy, Democracy index,
Friedman's test, P-value
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) was established in 1946 and its headquarter is in
London. It has ofces in New York, Hong Kong and Geneva. The EIU is the world's
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0828-8666.htm
Statistical
analysis of
democracy index
373
Humanomics
Vol. 30 No. 4, 2014
pp. 373-384
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0828-8666
DOI 10.1108/H-09-2013-0058
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leading provider of country, industry and management analysis. Its extensive
international reach and unfettered independence make it the most trusted and valuable
resource for international business throughout the world.
The EIU introduced a democracy index that measures the state of democracy for 167
countries. The index is based on 60 indicator variables grouped in ve different
categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government,
political participation and political culture. In addition to a numeric score and a ranking,
the index categorizes countries as one of four regime types: full democracies, awed
democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.
The democracy index was rst produced for 2006, with updates for 2008, 2010, 2011
and 2012. These data are described in Section 3. Section 4 deals with the analysis of these
data using statistical analysis of variance and non-parametric techniques. Rahman
(2010) used analysis of variance technique to analyze the GDP (gross domestic product)
and per-capita GDP of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, and here the same
technique is used to analyze the democracy index data.
Rahman (2006) used Friedman's test to check whether the differences between the
proportions of PNG population for different census years are statistically signicant,
and here the same test is used for testing democratic performances for different study
periods. Section 5 is the conclusion, implications and some suggestions for future
progress of democracy.
2. Literature review
According to Coppedge (2005), democracy can be dened in hundreds of ways.
However, almost all denitions belong to one of the four major types: economical, social,
communitarian or political democracy. Economical, social and communitarian
democracies are dened in terms of outcomes: the equalization of wealth, income and
status or the creation and maintenance of a feeling of belonging in a community or
communities and the promotion of participation within them. Political democracy does
not promise economic equality, social justice or a feeling of community; whatever
outcomes result from political democracy are consistent with this kind of democracy as
long as proper procedures produced them.
Diamond (2008,2011) believes democracy must improve where it exists before it can
spread to other countries. Democratic countries need to be held responsible for good
governance, not just when it suits them. Without signicant improvements in
governance, economic growth will not be sustainable. Democratic governments must
listen to their citizens' voices, engage their participation, tolerate their protests, protect
their freedoms and respond to their needs.
Diamond states that one of the main reasons for the recession in democracy is a surge
of young democratic countries. The leaders of young democratic countries use rigged
elections, make intense intimidation to any opposing political party and expand their
executive power in different unexpected ways. Whatever the leaders of young
democratic countries are doing, still the Western states support these as democracies.
Due to the growth of these corrupted semi-democracies, which Diamond calls electoral
authoritarianism, there has been a worldwide fall in the condence in democracy
especially in developing countries. Diamond believes that if governance is not improved
in democratic states, people will turn to authoritarian alternatives.
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Anastasakasis (2011) pointed out that favoritism of public administration in Greece
(two-party system) has been decreased, and recent economic crisis increased democratic
decit. The EIU pointed out that popular condence in political institution has been
declining in many full democratic countries. Miller and Listhaug (1990) made a
comparative study between Norway, Sweden and USA to examine the trends in political
trust for the period 1964-1986. They observed that during the early part of that period,
trust declined in all three countries, and later it recovered for Norway but continued to
decline in Sweden and USA. One major nding in Norway was that new parties
provided the disaffected with a means of representation, thus channeling dissatisfaction
back into the electoral arena. On the other hand, in Sweden and USA, which have more
rigid party systems, accumulating dissatisfaction was directed at the regime more
generally because many people failed to see any of the parties as a viable alternative.
Many countries have mainly two-party systems, and usually one of the two main parties
was ruling the country.
Rigobon and Rodrik (2005) studied the interrelationships among economic
institutions, political institutions, openness and income levels. They noted that
democracy and the rule of law are both good for economic performance, but the latter
has a much stronger impact on incomes. Openness (trade/GDP) has a negative impact on
income levels and democracy, but a positive effect on rule of law. Higher income
produces greater openness and better institutions, but these effects are not very strong.
Rule of law and democracy tend to be mutually reinforcing.
According to the British Social Attitudes report published in 2012, about 9 per cent of
the people trust British politicians, 17 per cent trust the British governments and 15 per
cent trust the British parliament (a great deal or quite a lot). Similar scenarios are viewed
throughout the world. Other institutions and professions, such as police, church, doctors
and bankers, have had their fair share of scandals and experienced a decline in public
trust.
Prince Charles, recently in a speech on Islam, said that science had tried to assume a
monopoly, even a tyranny, over our understanding. Religion and science have become
separated, so that now, as Wordsworth said, "Little we see in nature that is ours".
Science has attempted to take over the natural world from God; it has fragmented the
cosmos and relegated the sacred to a separate and secondary compartment of our
understanding, divorced from practical, day-to-day existence. We are only now
beginning to gauge the disastrous results. We have lost a sense of the wholeness of our
environment, and of our huge and inalienable responsibility to all creations. This has led
to an increasing failure to appreciate or understand tradition and the wisdom of our
ancestors, gathered over the centuries. Indeed, tradition is positively discriminated
against as if it was some socially unacceptable disease. In his view, a more holistic
approach is needed now.
Science is showing us a world much more complex than we ever imagined. But in its
modern materialist one-dimensional form, it cannot explain everything. God is not the
Newtonian mathematician or the mechanistic clockmaker. Science and technology have
increasingly separated from ethical, moral and sacred considerations. The implications
of such a separation have become more horrifying as we see in genetic manipulation, or
in the consequences of the kind of scientic arrogance.
Prince Charles added that tradition is not a man-made element in our lives, but a
God-given intuition of natural rhythms, of the fundamental harmony that emerges from
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the union of the paradoxical opposites that exist in every aspect of nature. Traditions
guide us to understand the great mysteries of the universe, so that we can see the whole
universe in an atom and eternity in a moment. That is why man is so much more than
just a biological phenomenon resting on what we now seem to dene as "the bottom line"
of the great balance sheet of life, according to which art and culture are seen increasingly
as optional extras in life.
Traditional religions, with their integral view of the universe, can help us to
rediscover the importance of the integration of the secular and the sacred. The danger of
ignoring this essential aspect of our existence is not just spiritual or intellectual. It also
lies at the heart of that great divide between the Islamic and Western worlds over the
place of materialism in our lives. He said Islamic culture in its traditional form has
striven to preserve this integrated, spiritual view of the world in a way we have not seen
t to do in recent generations in the West. He emphasized that we can learn a lot from
that Islamic world view in this respect. There are many ways in which mutual
understanding and appreciation can be built. Perhaps, for instance, they could begin by
having more Muslim teachers in British schools, or by encouraging exchanges of
teachers.
Prince Charles, who is a practicing Christian and will become the head of the Church
of England when he succeeds to the throne, spoke in depth about his own study of the
Quran. He said that the Quran tells its followers that there is "no separation between
man and nature" and we must always live within our environmental limits. The prince
spoke to an audience of scholars at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies – which
attempts to encourage a better understanding of the culture and civilization of the
religion. He added:
The inconvenient truth is that we share this planet with the rest of creation for a very good
reason and we cannot exist on our own without the intricately balanced web of life around us.
Islam has always taught this and to ignore that lesson is to default on our contract with
creation.
3. Democracy index data
The democracy index of EIU is based on the ratings for 60 indicators grouped in ve
categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of
government, political participation and political culture. Each category has a rating on
a 0 to 10 scale. Overall index is the simple average of the ve category indexes. Index
values are used to place a country into one of four types of regimes:
(1) Full democracies – Scores of 8 to10.
(2) Flawed democracies – Score of 6 to 7.9.
(3) Hybrid regimes – Scores of 4 to 5.9.
(4) Authoritarian regimes – Scores below 4.
Tables I and II represent the democracy index data.
4. Methodology
The democracy index data for 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 are presented in Tables I
and II . As democracy index varies from country to country and over time, we consider
randomized complete bock design for the analysis of variance to test whether there are
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Table I.
Democracy index data for
167 countries
Sr. No. Country 2012 2011 2010 2008 2006 Mean
1 Norway 9.93 9.80 9.80 9.68 9.55 9.75
2 Sweden 9.73 9.50 9.50 9.88 9.88 9.70
3 Iceland 9.65 9.65 9.65 9.65 9.71 9.66
4 Denmark 9.52 9.52 9.52 9.52 9.52 9.52
5 The Netherlands 8.99 8.99 8.99 9.53 9.66 9.23
6 New Zealand 9.26 9.26 9.26 9.19 9.01 9.20
7 Australia 9.22 9.22 9.22 9.09 9.09 9.17
8 Finland 9.06 9.06 9.19 9.25 9.25 9.16
9 Switzerland 9.09 9.09 9.09 9.15 9.02 9.09
10 Canada 9.08 9.08 9.08 9.07 9.07 9.08
11 Luxembourg 8.88 8.88 8.88 9.10 9.10 8.97
12 Ireland 8.56 8.56 8.79 9.01 9.01 8.79
13 Austria 8.62 8.49 8.49 8.49 8.69 8.56
14 Germany 8.34 8.34 8.38 8.82 8.82 8.54
15 Malta 8.28 8.28 8.28 8.39 8.39 8.32
155 Iran 1.98 1.98 1.94 2.83 2.93 2.33
156 Congo DRC 1.92 2.15 2.15 2.28 2.76 2.25
157 Laos 2.32 2.10 2.10 2.10 2.10 2.14
158 Syria 1.63 1.99 2.31 2.18 2.36 2.09
159 Equatorial Guinea 1.83 1.77 1.84 2.19 2.09 1.94
160 Myanmar 2.35 1.77 1.77 1.77 1.77 1.89
161 Guinea-Bissau 1.43 1.99 1.99 1.99 2.00 1.88
162 Saudi 1.71 1.77 1.84 1.90 1.92 1.83
163 Central Africa 1.99 1.82 1.82 1.86 1.61 1.82
164 Uzbekistan 1.72 1.74 1.74 1.74 1.85 1.76
165 Turkmenistan 1.72 1.72 1.72 1.72 1.83 1.74
166 Chad 1.62 1.62 1.52 1.52 1.65 1.59
167 North Korea 1.08 1.08 1.08 0.86 1.03 1.03
Table II.
Democracy index data for
13 countries with regime
change
Sr. No. Country 2012 2011 2010 2008 2006 Mean
1 Uruguay 8.17 8.17 8.10 8.08 7.96 8.10
2 South Korea 8.13 8.06 8.11 8.01 7.88 8.04
3 Portugal 7.92 7.81 8.02 8.05 8.16 7.99
4 France 7.88 7.77 7.77 8.07 8.07 7.91
5 Greece 7.65 7.65 7.92 8.13 8.13 7.90
6 Sri Lanka 5.75 6.58 6.64 6.61 6.58 6.43
7 Hong Kong 6.42 5.92 5.92 5.85 6.03 6.03
8 Mali 5.12 6.36 6.01 5.87 5.99 5.87
9 Malawi 6.08 5.84 5.84 5.13 4.97 5.57
10 Senegal 6.09 5.51 5.27 5.37 5.37 5.52
11 Burundi 3.60 4.01 4.01 4.51 4.51 4.13
12 Morocco 4.07 3.83 3.79 3.88 3.90 3.89
13 Libya 5.15 3.55 1.94 2.00 1.84 2.90
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signicant variations among the countries and between time (years). The following two
sets of null and alternative hypotheses are considered:
Set 1:
H0. There are no signicant differences of democracy indexes between time
variables (years).
Ha. There exist signicant differences of democracy indexes between time variables
(years).
The test statistic to test the above hypotheses is F⫽ MSS ( Time)
/
MSS ( Error) which
follows Snedecor's F-distribution with 4 and error degrees of freedom.
Set 2:
H0. There are no signicant differences of democracy indexes between countries.
Ha. There exist signicant differences of democracy indexes between countries.
The test statistic to test the above hypotheses is F⫽ MSS ( Country)
/
MSS ( Error)
which follows Snedecor's F-distribution with 166 and error degrees of freedom. F-test
requires normality assumption. It is not feasible to test normality by only 5 years of data.
Keeping this in mind, we have also applied Friedman's test (Gibbons, 1971) to test the
above hypotheses. The test statistic for Friedman's test is,
M⫽12
bk ( k⫹1) 兺
j⫽1
k
Rj2 ⫺3 b( k⫹1),
Where
b⫽number of blocks,
k⫽number of treatments,
R
j
⫽for j
th
treatment.
If the value of the block variable is large (⬎5), or the number of observations is large
(bk ⬎ 5), then Mfollows a chi-square distribution with (k-1) degrees of freedom. The
decision rule is, reject H0 if M exceeds the critical value where the critical values are
Figure 1.
Democracy indexes for all
167 countries
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available in the table for different values of b ,k and
␣
signicance level. If the values of
nor kare not included in the table, approximate critical values are obtained from the
chi-squared distribution using k-1 degrees of freedom and
␣
signicance level.
5. Analysis
Democracy index data were plotted and are shown in Figures 1-6.
These gures show that there are some variations between years for some countries.
Then we conduct analysis of variance to test whether these variations are statistically
signicant. The test results are given in Tables III and IV.
The test indicates that there are signicant variations between countries but no
signicant variations between years. We have also applied Friedman's test for which
rst we ranked the data within the rows and obtained Tables V and VI.
Figure 2.
Democracy indexes for 25
full democratic countries
Figure 3.
Democracy indexes for
awed democratic
countries
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Here k⫽ 5, b⫽ 167, M ⫽3.02 and P-value is 0.554 for testing the null hypothesis of no
signicant difference between years. The test indicates that there are no signicant
variations between years for all 167 countries.
Here k⫽ 5, b⫽ 13, M ⫽0.785 and P-value is 0.94 for testing no signicant difference
between years. The test indicates that there are no signicant variations between years.
That is the global democracy becomes stagnant in the sense that there is no signicant
progress or regression.
The EIU pointed out that popular condence in political institution was declining in
many countries, including full democratic countries. Most of the developed countries
and many developing countries have mainly two-party systems. That is literally a
multiparty democracy, but practically one of the two main parties of these countries was
ruling the country for decades or centuries.
Asian Barometer polls show that more citizens believe that the nations' recent
democratic transitions had brought no improvements to their lives than believe that the
changes are positive. People ruled by hybrid or authoritarian regimes are frustrated
Figure 4.
Democracy indexes for
hybrid regime countries
Figure 5.
Democracy indexes for
authoritarian regime
countries
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with their current uncertain situation and want a change for freedom or better living. As
a result, they are ghting for democracy, but in fact, is it the right choice? All unnatural,
inhumane things are happening publicly throughout the world. Therefore, to increase
people's trust and reduce all types of corruptions for better living, we need to be better
humans by acquiring all good qualities of human beings in terms of belief, honesty,
character, trust and understanding.
6. Conclusion
Democracy index is a measure of democratic performance introduced by the EIU.
Statistical tests indicate that there are signicant variations of democracy indexes
between countries, but no signicant variations between years. That is, the global
democracy becomes stagnant in the sense that no signicant progress or regression was
observed.
Democracy is a popular alternative to hybrid or authoritarian regimes, but the
nations' recent democratic transitions had brought no improvements to their lives in the
Figure 6.
Democracy indexes for 13
countries that move from
one regime to another
regime
Table III.
Analysis of variance table
for 167 countries
Source of variation SS df MS FP -value Fcritical
Countries 4005.770 166 24.131 156.696 0.000 1.216
Years 0.382 4 0.096 0.620 0.648 2.385
Error 102.256 664 0.154
Total 4108.408 834
Table IV.
Analysis of variance table
for 13 countries having
regime change
Source of variation SS df MS FP -value Fcritical
Countries 187.786 12 15.649 62.505 0.000 1.960
Years 0.451 4 0.113 0.450 0.772 2.565
Error 12.017 48 0.250
Total 200.254 64
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Table V.
Friedman's test results for
167 countries
Sr. No. Country 2012 2011 2010 2008 2006
1 Norway 1.00 2.50 2.50 4.00 5.00
2 Sweden 3.00 4.50 4.50 1.50 1.50
3 Iceland 3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50 1.00
4 Denmark 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00
5 The Netherlands 4.00 4.00 4.00 2.00 1.00
6 New Zealand 2.00 2.00 2.00 4.00 5.00
7 Australia 2.00 2.00 2.00 4.50 4.50
8 Finland 4.50 4.50 3.00 1.50 1.50
9 Switzerland 3.00 3.00 3.00 1.00 5.00
10 Canada 2.00 2.00 2.00 4.50 4.50
11 Luxembourg 4.00 4.00 4.00 1.50 1.50
12 Ireland 4.50 4.50 3.00 1.50 1.50
13 Austria 2.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 1.00
14 Germany 1.00 2.50 2.50 4.00 5.00
15 Malta 3.00 4.50 4.50 1.50 1.50
155 Iran 1.00 2.00 5.00 3.50 3.50
156 Congo DRC 1.00 2.00 4.00 4.00 4.00
157 Laos 3.50 3.50 5.00 2.00 1.00
158 Syria 5.00 3.50 3.50 2.00 1.00
159 Equatorial Guinea 1.00 3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50
160 Myanmar 5.00 4.00 2.00 3.00 1.00
161 Guinea-Bissau 4.00 5.00 3.00 1.00 2.00
162 Saudi 1.00 3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50
163 Central Africa 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 1.00
164 Uzbekistan 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00
165 Turkmenistan 1.00 3.50 3.50 2.00 5.00
166 Chad 5.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 1.00
167 North Korea 3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50 1.00
R
j
506.01 537.51 541.51 458.95 455.45
Table VI.
Friedman's test results for
13 countries having
regime change
Country 2012 2011 2010 2008 2006
Uruguay 1.5 1.5 3.0 4.0 5.0
South Korea 1.0 3.0 2.0 4.0 5.0
Portugal 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0
France 3.0 4.5 4.5 1.5 1.5
Greece 4.5 4.5 3.0 1.5 1.5
Sri Lanka 5.0 3.5 1.0 2.0 3.5
Hong Kong 1.0 3.5 3.5 5.0 2.0
Mali 5.0 1.0 2.0 4.0 3.0
Malawi 1.0 2.5 2.5 4.0 5.0
Senegal 1.0 2.0 5.0 3.5 3.5
Burundi 5.0 3.5 3.5 1.5 1.5
Morocco 1.0 4.0 5.0 3.0 2.0
Libya 12435
R
j
35.0 39.5 42.0 39.0 39.5
R
j
2
1225.0 1560.3 1764.0 1521.0 1560.3
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society. Rulers of many developing countries are abusing this democratic identity and
under this umbrella doing all inhumane things to control the opponents, resulting in
suffering for the ordinary people. In many multiparty democratic countries, only two
main parties are ruling the countries for decades or centuries. In some countries, both of
these main parties are corrupt and people have no choice. It was proved that democracy
does not bring peace in the society.
God has created us in this world with the rest of creation for a very good reason which
was explained in all main religious books. To increase our honesty, character, trust and
understanding for becoming a good human, we should follow the divine rules and
guidance. Eventually everything will work properly, including democracy.
References
Anastasakasis, O. (2011), "Greek democracy at gunpoint", European Voice, 10 November.
Coppedge, M. (2005), "Dening and measuring democracy", Working Paper, International
Political Science Association.
Diamond, L. (2008), "The democratic rollback", Foreign Affairs, March-April.
Diamond, L. (2011), "Democracy's third wave today", Current History, November, Freedom
House, available at: www.freedomhouse.org
Gibbons, J.D. (1971), Nonparametric Statistical Inference, McGraw Hill, Tokyo.
Miller, A.H. and Listhaug, O. (1990), "Political parties and condence in Government: a
comparison of Norway, Sweden and the United States", British Journal of Political Science,
Vol. 29, pp. 357-386.
Rahman, M.S. (2006), "Age distribution model for PNG population", Journal of Applied Probability
and Statistics, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 39-48.
Rahman, M.S. (2010), "Variance analysis of GDP for GCC countries", International Review of
Business Research Papers, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 253-259.
Rigobon, R. and Rodrik, D. (2005), "Rule of law, democracy, openness, and income: estimating the
interrelationships", Economics of Transition , Vol. 13 No. 3.
Further reading
Hoey, J. (2011), "A tale of two Europes: the impact of the crisis on attitudes and values", Economies
in Transition Regional Overview, Economist Intelligence Unit.
Horowitz, I.L. (2006), "The struggle for democracy", World of Work Report 2010: from one crisis to
the next?, National Interest, ILO.
Kekic, L. (2006), "A pause in democracy's march", The World in 2007, Economist, Reporters
without borders, World Press Freedom Index 2010.
Thaker, P. (2010), "Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa", Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Overview,
Economist Intelligence Unit.
UN (2010), "Our Democracy in Latin America", Human Development Report and the Organisation
of American States, UN Development Programme (UNDP), available at: www.dailymail.
co.uk/news/article-1285332/Follow-Islamic-way-save-world-Charles-urges-environmentalists.
html#ixzz2Z7b0AfHS
About the author
Dr M. Shaqur Rahman was born and brought up in Bangladesh and then migrated to
Australia. He has more than 33 years of teaching and research experience at six universities,
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Statistical
analysis of
democracy index
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namely, Chittagong University of Bangladesh, Dalhousie and Saint Mary's University of
Canada, Monash University of Australia, University of Papua New Guinea and, currently,
Sultan Qaboos University of Oman. He taught various statistics courses at undergraduate
and postgraduate levels. He has published 34 research papers in international referred
journals. He is a member of several professional societies. Currently he is an Associate Editor
of the Journal of Applied Probability and Statistics . M. Shaqur Rahman can be contacted at:
srahman@squ.edu.om
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... Democracy means different things to different people and it can be examined from economic, social, communitarian and political perspectives (Rahman, 2014). Whilst political democracy is concern about the governance processes within a country, all other perspectives of democracies focus on certain outcomes. ...
- Redeemer Dornudo Yao Krah
- Gerard Mertens
Purpose The study aims at examining the level of financial transparency of local governments in a sub-Saharan African country and how financial transparency is affected by democracy in the sub-region. Design/methodology/approach The study applied a panel regression model to data collected from public accounts of 43 local authorities in Ghana from 1995 to 2014. Financial transparency was measured using a transparency index developed based on the Transparency Index of Transparency International and the information disclosure requirements of public sector entities under the International Public Sector Accounting Standards. Findings The study finds the low level of financial transparency among the local governments in Ghana, creating information asymmetry within the agency framework of governance. Further, evidence from the study suggests a strong positive relationship between democracy and financial transparency in the local government. Research limitations/implications Deepening democracy is necessary for promoting the culture of financial transparency in local governance in sub-Saharan Africa, perhaps in entire Africa. Practical implications There is a need for the local governments and governments, in general, to deepen democracy to ensure proactive disclosure of the financial information to the citizens to improve participation trust and eventual reduction in corruption. Effective implementation of the Right to Information Act would also help promote financial and other forms of transparency in the sub-region. Originality/value The study contributes to the public sector accounting literature by linking democracy to financial transparency in the local government. Hitherto, studies concentrate on how entity level variables impact on the level of financial information flow in the local government without considering the broader governance infrastructure within which local governments operate.
... There are some other scholars used machine learning classification techniques such as machine learning [10]. Rahman et al. [11] has done some trend on the improvement of democracy over the certain period of time through Freidman's test. ...
Original Research Article 167 countries around the world cover almost all the total population of the world. These countries are clustered into four different clusters as per their democracy index scores (DIS) that were introduced by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU introduced this DIS first time in the year 2006. But after running some statistical tests, it is found that some countries are falling into some clusters where they are not supposed to be. So, in this study, we have revisited the EIU data and found that there are some statistically significant differences among some of the countries included in the adjacent clusters. It was found that by implementing proper statistical clustering and classification techniques the number of countries in each cluster was changed significantly. It is also found that the new arrangement of countries in each of the clusters are statistically robust both parametrically and non-parametrically. Another interesting finding of this study was to determine appropriate countries for each of the cluster members so that any government or non-government organizations (e.g.: IMF, WHO, ADB, WB) who are deciding body to make a monetary sanction to any specific country to improve the democracy, to vitalize the infrastructure or other development-related projects can have a statistical standpoint to back up their decision with certain level of certainty.
... The DI is based on 60 indicators grouped into five different categories measuring pluralism, civil liberties, and political culture. The DI was first published in 2006 and covers almost the entire world [61][62][63][64]. ...
This paper seeks to contribute to existing debates on the relationship between democracy and environmental quality. More specifically, we aim to provide nuance and insight into the question as to whether democratic regimes are better equipped to protect the environment. After critically reviewing theoretical arguments and providing an overview of existing empirical studies, the paper proposes an approach which consists of the use of non-parametric correlations between democracy and environmental quality, and a consideration of the interactions between democracy, government effectiveness, economic prosperity, and perceptions of corruption. Crucially, we show that, although a positive correlation can be found between levels of democracy and environmental quality, the picture is somewhat blurred if data are stratified using criteria such as government effectiveness and corruption perceptions. Consequently, the main argument the paper pursues is that, to assess the relationship between democracy and environmental quality, intervening factors and their effects need to be acknowledged and taken into account.
... They added that individuals should be free to choose how they want to live and what to believe in. Rahman [6] analyzed democracy index data for the period 2006-2012 for all 167 countries together and for four types of regimes separately using ANOVA and Friedman's test. He observed that in some countries there were upgrade in democratic performance and in some countries had regression. ...
- Tooran Alizadeh
This Chapter starts by an overview of the literature that investigates the links between smart city practices and governance. It builds on the question proposed in the critical literature on the links between democracy in governance and city shaping, in general, and smart city development, in particular. This Chapter offers an overall analysis of all participating cities in the Smarter Cities Challenge based on their democracy scores—obtained from the Democracy Index 2018. This is followed by summary accounts of a few case study cities involved with the Challenge to provide tangible narrations of the role that different levels of democratic governance (e.g., full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes) have played in smart city development. The overall goal is to identify whether or how much democracy matters in the ways in which cities around the world adopt smart solutions.
- Tooran Alizadeh
This chapter synthesizes the learnings throughout this book and offers an integrated analysis of smart cities. It revisits the original question on the global state of smart city development and the ways in which this is shaped by the urban context. In particular, it focuses on the Smarter Cities Challenge and encapsulates the discussions throughout this book to understand whether and/or how geography (North–South divide), city size, governance (the levels of democracy), and (strategic) urban planning—each individually and in combination with each other—matter in the ways in which cities around the world adopt smart solutions. This chapter concludes by a conversation about future directions, informed by the global analysis of smart city development enabled via the Smarter Cities Challenge.
Based on the relationship between the powers of the state and society, this paper aims to identify the democratic components that positively and significantly impact the perception of corruption results. The public administration and theoretical economics references focus on the themes of state, society, institutions, democracy, governance, and corruption. This investigation is a quantitative regression study based on multivariate panel data of 14 years covering 164 countries. The paper's main contribution is the identification of scientific evidence that democratic levels related to the functioning of government and political participation have a positive and significant impact on the perception of corruption.
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![Miguel Goede]()
This book is about the current global crisis and the alternative new society 5.0 in which "We" and "I" are in balance. In our current society, "I" has taken priority over "We", and has consequently caused an im-balance between the public interest and self-interest.
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![Miguel Goede]()
Purpose The purpose of this article is to explore the future of democracy, given the transition the countries of the world are experiencing. Methodology The paper draws on literature concerning democracy, ICT and artificial intelligence. A framework for understanding the working of democracy is developed. This framework or model is tested in 20 countries, and conclusions are presented. Findings Globally, there is a shift taking place away from representative democracy toward less democratic forms of government. Originality Most studies are implicitly dogmatic in assuming that representative democracy is a superior form of government. The influences of corporations, media and the elite are moving representative democracy away from the ideal of democracy. Conclusions The future of democracy is uncertain. It is not likely that representative democracy will become the universal form of government. Global government is possible, but it is not likely to be a representative democracy.
- Yean-Fu Wen
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![Yt Hwang]()
Purpose The purpose of this study is to review the levels of open government data (OGD) among various countries that are not consistent with the development levels of those countries. This study evaluates the associativity between OGD Index (OGD) and the characteristics of those countries as well as to compare the degree of OGD among countries. Accordingly, an advanced discussion to explore how a country's characteristics affect how that country's government opens data was presented. Design/methodology/approach The stakeholder relationships of OGD is analysed with the characteristics of a country. The usage data are compared with the data availability according to nine indicators. These data collected from the statistics and OGDI websites are grouped for comparative statistical analyses based on basic descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance and a regression model with variance inflation faction. Findings The results 1) revealed the reasons some countries have high-ranking indexes and 2) verified the high index values of countries in terms of their degrees of development. This study, thus, attempted to derive a balanced appraisal of national development and OGD. Research limitations/implications The study sample is limited only to countries 1) which open the statistical data; and 2) are of uneven population density and development degree. The OGDI is limited to expert evaluation. The score might be vary to experts and users with diverse countries at different evaluation period. The limitations can be attributed to the differences between OGDI and real open levels. These differences might influence the reliability and validity. Practical implications Government departments with OGD policies provide raw data in various formats and with application interfaces for user access. This study, thus, attempts to derive a balanced appraisal of national development and OGD. The factors that evaluate which types of countries open the level of data are explored. Originality/value This study establishes stakeholder relationships of OGD and extends to analyse the characteristics of a country and OGD that affect the government data open level. The relationships are evaluated through the OGDI with design score scheme. The measurement results indicated that a country possesses high relation to open data with high DI and nature resource.
Efficient and reliable estimates of the proportions of populations at different age levels for a particular year are very important for making a quality budget of any developing or developed nation. These estimates are obtained from the best-fitted age distribution model and can be used to find the number of school age children, unemployment rate, number of pensioners, etc. Past census data of Papua New Guinea (PNG) are analyzed and it is observed that the age distribution of the PNG population is exponential. Applying exponential distributions, the population figures for different age groups of the PNG are estimated. The age distribution of the PNG population is compared with that of other developed nations. It is observed that unlike other developed countries of the world, the age distribution of the PNG population do not change significantly over the last five decades. It is also observed that the median age of the PNG population is about half of that of other developed nations.
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![M. S. Rahman]()
GDP (Gross domestic product) and per capita GDP data of six GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries were collected and analysed by randomized complete bock design and pair-wise multiple comparison. It is observed that GDP of Saudi Arabia is significantly higher than that of all other GCC countries. The GDP of Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait are similar. The GDP of UAE is significantly higher than Bahrain, Qatar and Oman but significantly lower than Saudi Arabia. There are no significant differences between the per capita GDP of Oman and Saudi Arabia, between Bahrain and Kuwait, and between Qatar and UAE. In terms of per capita GDP, on an average UAE is slightly better than Qatar but both UAE and Qatar are significantly higher than that of all other four GCC countries.
- Larry Diamond
While restlessness with democracy has grown in many places, authoritarian rule generally elicits greater unease if not disgust.
- Timothy Insoll
This article discusses the archaeology of ritual and religion in sub-Saharan Africa. It starts by briefly considering the definition of African indigenous religions. It then reviews archaeological research on rock art, portable ritual objects, materiality and technology, death and burial, shrines and monuments.
- International Institute for Labour Studies
Economic recovery from the crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 remains both weak and uneven across countries. The result is persistently high unemployment in some countries, and growing job precariousness almost everywhere. In the countries where the crisis originated, the financial system remains dysfunctional, thereby affecting enterprise investment and further delaying a job recovery. This report shows that a sustainable, job-rich recovery is possible – provided that the factors that led to the crisis are tackled.
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![Roberto Rigobon]()
- Dani Rodrik
We estimate the interrelationships among economic institutions, political institutions, openness, and income levels, using identification through heteroskedasticity (IH). We split our cross-national dataset into two sub-samples: (i) colonies versus non-colonies; and (ii) continents aligned on an East-West versus those aligned on a North-South axis. We exploit the difference in the structural variances in these two sub-samples to gain identification. We find that democracy and the rule of law are both good for economic performance, but the latter has a much stronger impact on incomes. Openness (trade/GDP) has a negative impact on income levels and democracy, but a positive effect on rule of law. Higher income produces greater openness and better institutions, but these effects are not very strong. Rule of law and democracy tend to be mutually reinforcing.
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280159408_Statistical_analysis_of_democracy_index
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