The Most & Least Democratic Countries in the World 

*Are you surprised by any of the results on the map?*

"democratic republic of Congo" They really clickbaited their entire nation

I think it's ironic, that the two least democratic countries have "Democratic" in their full name "Democratic People's Republic Korea" "Democratic Republic of the Congo"

I love how Mongolia is landlocked, poor, depopulated, and surrounded by historically communist regimes but is still democratic never would have guessed

"Democracy is the best" - Kim Jong Un

Lesson of the day is that ”Democratic” in country’s name is often a clickbait.

This study: Canada and USA form a continent on their own. Also this study: Australia and New Zeeland is grouped with eastern Asia. ???

General Knowledge: **has a black pencil cryaon** Also General Knowledge: **draws in orange, blue, green, yellow and purple with it**

Democracy is not perfect but it is best out of every other alternative. ❤️ To all democratic countries from an Indian citizen.

Make a video: The Most and Least Corrupt countries in the World

Stop lying, Madagascar ain't democracy, it's a monarchy. Julian is its king.

Americans when they’re not even top 20 most democratic: “Impossible. Perhaps the archives are incomplete”

One must keep in mind that freedom and democracy are two different things. They are definitely related though: a free society must be a democratic one, but a democratic society is not necessarily free.

"Those who lived before you fought to achieve." Me, a german: "Yeah about that..."

Who needs a democracy everyone is happy under the glorious potato regime

Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!

12:14 I wasn't surprised by Greece's high 92% support of democracy and its values, but by its lower support anywhere else..

“I love democracy.” -Sheev Palpatine

Culturally, Mexico belongs to Latin America, while geographically it belongs to North America.

This video was very complete in my view. Great job! 🤠👍

I love the nuance taken with consideration of strict categorization, and am amazed you would place at least a minute of 15 to specify those details! Thank you so much for that and I wish all content makers of intellectual content would do so. Also to note: you specified the flaws potentially misused within each chart that was easily misused (no-one can specify all misusing's as they are by definition infinite, but you covered the most important ones and I thank you for that).

As a Canadian I can say that we don't deserve that high of a rank. We don't even vote for our senators.

Boy,am I proud of being an Indian in a sea of red countries. 🌈🇮🇳

very interesting content - thank you for sharing this! Rudi Belgium

I'm from Russia and I'm surprised what "deficit of democracy" in Russia isn't equal minus 146%

Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the least democratic and Democratic Republic of Congo is the second least democratic

2nd least democratic country: Democratic Republic of the Congo *-ironic*

I decided to do the calculations for averages based on continents (taken from Wikipedia) instead of the arbitrary regions shown. Since some countries showed up in two continents I chose the continent they are physically on, example Kazakhstan is listed in both Europe and Asia but is physically in Asia. Oceania (4 of 13 countries) Average 7.56 Europe (40 of 46 countries) Average 7.40 South America (12 of 12 countries) Average 6.46 North America (14 of 23 countries) Average 6.21 Asia (47 of 49 countries) Average 4.40 Africa (50 of 54 countries) Average 4.22 Countries not included in Democratic Index: North America: Belize, Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis Europe: Kosovo, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican City Africa: Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles Asia: Brunei, Maldives Oceania: Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Marshall Islands, Palau, Tuvalu

This video really interested me. I'm tempted to subscribe.

The Turtle Republic is the most democratic country in the world.

“Many people before you fought to achieve” My grandparents who were fighting to be treated like normal humans: yeah um about that.

Excellent presentation

Something to keep in mind when quoting fractional numbers. They can be full verbal representation preceding the decimal, but the correct verbal nuance for any digits following the decimal is always singular. For example: 24.24 is "twenty-four point two four" not "twenty-four point twenty-four" ;)

Thailand is democratic? Prayuth: Laughing as his "election" worked.

DPRK and DRC: yep, we're democratic alright! Rest of the word: uh..who's gonna tell them?

As for the grouping, there is a more mathematical way to group countries together using grapth analysis. Make a graph with every country being a node and put a link between nodes if they share a border (hum...make all island nations connected to each other? as long as they are in the same ocean? idk). Look at the squared difference between their scores and proceed to do network analsys for grouping.

I love democracy. I love the republic. -Sheev Palpatine (a.k.a. THE SENATE), 22 BBY

"Democracy is 2 Wolves and a Lamb deciding on what to have for dinner." - Benjamin Franklin

I will like to see the ranking analysis next year (2021). Perceptions are interesting...

Excellent and free of ideology analysis, it all makes sense from whatever perspective you look at it. Well done indeed mate!

I like how the countries that name themselves "Democratic" are actually the least Democratic.

As a Norwegian im drowning im democracy over here

I think it's really good that you take different aspects into account. Saying things like "these results don't mean a country is democratic. They can also mean that..." It makes a person aware that results are not always black and white, and that they can be scewed due to certain factors.

Well from my study from Canada to Argentina they are part of the same continent, these are divided into three regions, North America (Canada, USA, Mexico), Central America (Guatemala to Panama), South America (Colombia to Argentina), Then it can also be divided by culture, Anglo Culture (USA, Canada) where they speak English, Latin Culture (Mexico to Argentina) speak Spanish, Portuguese and French

For some countries, their flaws are hidden very deep within the system, and are impossible for this survey to find.

Omg, since when Mexico is not on North America?!?!! WTF!!!!!

It will be interesting to see how this one ages! Videos like this covering different time periods would be interesting, too. For instance, Portugal was once under Salazar and Chile under Pinochet...and the USA is on a real rollercoaster.

I love how the democratic republic of the Congo is the 2nd least democratic country

Merry Christmas, General Knowledge🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

I absolutely adore how you put the effort in these videos to keep people aware that critical thought is still important, and that not all seen here should be taken as facts. I personally appreciate this.

Interesting to have a discussion of the most democratic countries with _Preussens Gloria_ playing in the background.

Staye blessed Sir. Thank u sir

I'd be nice if you would put the source for the data directly into your description so we can take a closer look if we want.

Video about democracy *Imperial Russian anthem plays in the background*

nice presentation very interesting keep it up

I would enjoy your take on the top functioning nations and democracies on indices like education, ppp, gdp, rime, happiness, resources etc. You might be uniquely positioned to show how stability can be achieved. Thanks for your efforts.

USA: "We're the best democracy in the world!" Actually, a flawed democracy. *surprised pikachu face*

4:05 - Nope, it's clearly Northern Europe

7:35 Cape Verde does well, along with South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Ghana and Tunisia. You forgot Mauritius

Watching a lot of your videos just makes me feel lucky to be Dutch tbh

Funny how the most democratic countries have a monarch

A Shark loves democratic countries!

6:40 Is that Zürich's "Sechseläutenmarsch" playing in the background?

The fact that China isn’t in the bottom 10 is crazy

Now THIS is interesting! Greetings from Canada!

Fascinating video, particularly the bit about the democratic deficit. It seems to me that statistic is about popular buy-in to their regime: homogeneous societies such as Saudi Arabia are going to have more tolerance for the regime which fits their cultures than diverse places such as the US, and the fact that Chileans perceive a bigger deficit than in actual fact may be to do with democracy giving them a bigger platform on which to criticise and scrutinise their own government. Poland and Hungary live right beside Germany and Austria, and have enough information about what goes on on the other side of the border to be envious. Indeed, it was the beginning of the information age which kickstarted the end of communism: the dissemination of easily accessible printing and video tapes, as well as TV broadcasting from the other side of the Berlin Wall, may well have hastened the end of the Cold War and be instrumental in resolving issues in the modern world. The recent US and UK experience has shown me also that democracy actually does work. It used to be said that 'if voting changed anything, then they'd abolish it'. Although I didn't support either Trump or Brexit, it was interesting to see (and kinda reassuring) that democracy actually functioned and the people got what they voted for, however much it might have pained me. That so many people could challenge the outcome of both Trump (and then Biden) and Brexit without repercussions also made me feel I definitely do live in a democracy -- the process may be infuriating at times and not go the way I think it should go, but people have a voice and are using it. I also pointed out when I wrote a paper on this for a university exam back at the LSE in 2001 that some global issues -- e.g. coronavirus -- need us to hold back popular will to get things done. In my paper I wrote that international response to environmental concerns necessarily had to involve nations giving up their sovereignty in order to abide by international agreements, and that this was actually preferable to complete autonomy within the world community. Likewise, I never thought I'd see the day that it was illegal for me to go and see my mother and that we had to meet at arm's length in a park (before BoJo brought in support bubbles, which was one of his best ideas as I was widowed last year at 40 and needed the support) but we have to sacrifice some democratic liberties to fight a global health problem. While I totally agree with the restrictions, I'm glad to live in a country where people can speak out even about trivial things like not being allowed to go on holiday rather than being totally muzzled. I may get annoyed by some opinions, but to be honest I prefer seeing that debate and discussion in the press than it being silenced completely.

It scares me how singled out Brazil has become in international discussion

What place were the baltic countries in?

wht's about a video in which you show the national flags, that stayed the same or simmilar for zhe longest time for example austria red and white stripe from 1230 until today?

“Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”

I don't understand how the middle east can be so red, I thought the US brought democracy there.

TY 😊

European here, I must add something that is based entirely on my opinion, thus people are free to disagree respectfully with me - some nations who've been on the Eastern side of the Iron curtain during the Cold War, although they're still regarded as democracies, should be in my opinion placed on a somewhat lower rank than they actually are. A clear example of this would be my home country of Bulgaria - an incredibly powerful oligarchic society has emerged which has embedded itself in almost all of the civil administration in my nation. This results in a clear trend of corruption practiced on all levels of power and a low rank of freedom of the press - I believe Reporters without borders have places us at around 110-111th place overall worldwide. There is a clear trend here that although ex-Soviet influenced nations are struggling and trying hard to establish a democratic society, endorsed by culture and education, a lot should not fall under the category of a flawed democracy, rather it should be categorized at the line between a hybrid regime and a flawed democracy - Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine,Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, etc. All these nations have clear issues regarding their current democracy IMO and I would be more than happy to be respectfully proven wrong by people who live in these places. But in my opinion, the real reason that these nations from Eastern Europe are struggling and should not be placed in such a high place is because overall the concept of a democratic society is not as strong as for example the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries and more. These countries, especially the UK and France are the birthplace of modern democracy as we know it and have shed a lot of their blood to defend these ideals that are currently being established in the ex-communist states. P.S.: Please do excuse me if some errors are found, English isn't my native language.

We are all watching this video as if democracy (the conception of it) was a perfect and flawless system for running a country, but it's not like this. I think we have to evolve further politically still. I am surprised USA doesn't make it lower into the raking, their electoral process is far from democratic having only 2 parties viable to run for points, as each state only provides all its points to the most voted party there.

So how are the Netherlands or Switzerland 'less'Democratic then for example Canada ? Sounds a bit random.

This is a pretty old report. I have just downloaded a copy of the 2020 report, as I have with past reports for a number of years and these numbers are at least three years old. Things have changed.

Chile: brutal repression and people rising France: tries to punish people for shraing videos of police brutality This guys: Full democracy!!!!

Musical background of the video : minute 5:00 you celebrated Swiss democracy "Sechseläuten" Thanks !

Nice video

Country with gray colour: "Don't mind me, we just puppet"

Yeah, just because of the "civil liberties" part you can say that the results are very off.

wasn’t surprised that the US wasn’t in the top 10 most democratic.

We hate this in Switzerland. We are only tenth because of low participation. But as a semi-direct democracy we vote on multiple issues 4 times a year. Votations are more important than elections (every 4 years). And most people do not go to the polls every 3 months...

Could we have the source in the description?

The second least democratic country: the Democratic republic of congo. Ironic.

Thank you General Knowledge for posting these wonderful videos for us. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

How come Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and other -stans added to Central and Eastern Europe? I just checked the grouping. It makes no sense and it drags the average index down.

Thanks for clarifing about India at 9:09

7:03 you probably meant Montenegro instead of Kosovo judging by the map

Looking at this map we can easily divide the "western world" from everyone else (with some few exceptions)

as a canadian i think it is important to be clear minded and fair, therefore i have to say that canada takes an L in the secction of term limits since it doesnt have one.

13:38 As someone who lives in Poland I can confirm the truthfulness of this graph.

Wow, those regions are kinda weird. I'd do it by either the 6 or 7 continent model, rather than a somewhat arbitrary grouping. NZ also shouldn't have an electoral process score of 10, while it's pretty great overall, there are several minor issues mostly relating with minor parties and potential gerrymandering.

I wouldn’t consider the USA a full democracy it’s more democracy lite

The map is changing, as we speak!

I think these measurements would be more accurate if the wealth of politicians would be factored in. Because if all politicians are rich than the country is probably not democratic because then richer people would hold disproportionally more power.

*North Korea has entered the chat*

Wonder what the world's democracy score would be if a certain PRC didn't exist, and China was governed under the ROC instead (especially under the original 1947 constitution, unamended)

The thoughtfulness to put the Wiphala next to the Bolivian flag 🥹

When you say your country has an effective democracy but the Country that you rebelled from is more Democratic. -- This post was made by the UK Gang.