America was just downgraded from a 'full democracy'

Not to kick the country while it’s down, but the US has just been downgraded from a 'full democracy' to a 'flawed democracy'.

This is according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2016 Democracy Index. In 2015, it states, the number of ‘full’ democracies was 20, but now it has fallen to 19 – thanks to the US.

The country's score fell to 7.98 in 2016 from 8.05 in 2015, and anything under 8.00 is not a ‘full democracy’.

This, the Unit states, is ‘because of a further erosion of trust in government and elected officials there’.

The Economist writes:

The downgrade was not a consequence of Donald Trump.

Rather, it was caused by the same factors that led Mr Trump to the White House: a continued erosion of trust in government and elected officials.

The index measures data gathered from global surveys, and looks specifically at: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties.

In at number one is Norway, with an impressive score of 9.93 out of 10, and North Korea ranks at the bottom.

Britain’s score increased from 2015 to 2016, due to the high 72% turnout for the EU referendum. Well, at least one good thing came from that.

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