MJ's little flock

[RoyalChick]

What leads you to hold that view? I ask because to me it seems trust in institutions is a feature of democracy, but I have no meaningful expertise.

I am agreeing with you. It was one of the criteria the EIU uses for their index and I thought that was a very good criterion to include. And I recall that it was one of the main reasons the US got downgraded was because of falling trust in institutions.
I meant I thought it was an interesting criterion in an approving way! I know use of the word interesting can have weird nuance, but I meant it straightforwardly that I was interested in it!

 

[RoyalChick]

For me, the interesting question in the data is how on earth is NZ higher than Finland when Kiwis don't get to elect their head of state, the Queen?

Maybe because the Queen has no say in the running country?

 

[MaryJanet]

Maybe because the Queen has no say in the running country?

Well, that is very true which I'd have thought made NZ less democratic than Finland who elect a head of state who has genuine powers of intervention and oversight, not to mention foreign policy, during their six (?) year term - in addition to their PM.

 

[RoyalChick]

Well, that is very true which I'd have thought made NZ less democratic than Finland who elect a head of state who has genuine powers of intervention and oversight, not to mention foreign policy, during their six (?) year term - in addition to their PM.

Doesn't NZ have a Prime Minister(?) who does that?
My point was if it is entirely irrelevant to the running of the country then it probably doesn't feature in the assessment of the democracy.
I am well out of my depth here but it feels like an irrelevancy lto democracy like I dunno who gets to perform at half time at a major sporting event..

 

[MaryJanet]

Doesn't NZ have a Prime Minister(?) who does that?
My point was if it is entirely irrelevant to the running of the country then it probably doesn't feature in the assessment of the democracy.
I am well out of my depth here but it feels like an irrelevancy lto democracy like I dunno who gets to perform at half time at a major sporting event..

I'm thinking dividing powers between head of state and prime minister must be beneficial to democracy, same with meaningful power of veto. Finland has these, NZ doesn't.

Maybe these things are too slight to matter.

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm thinking dividing powers between head of state and prime minister must be beneficial to democracy, same with meaningful power of veto. Finland has these, NZ doesn't.

Maybe these things are too slight to matter.

Now you have me intrigued - I will see if I can figure how to get the full report.

 

[MaryJanet]

Now you have me intrigued - I will see if I can figure how to get the full report.

Intriguing is the word.

The obvious answer is that NZ is performing so extremely well on all the other measures that are folded into the score that a functionally powerless, hereditary head of state doesn't have much impact on NZ's overall ranking.

I presume NZ would be the highest ranked democracy in the world if not for the remnants of its colonial legacy.

Of course, obvious answers aren't always correct answers.

 

[MaryJanet]

There she is, up on the chair where she likes to be at this time of day.

 

[rjohns39]

Good evening folks

 

[MaryJanet]

Following up on the politics exploration started yesterday, I've read the first fascinating detail about Switzerland. It has both direct democracy and representative democracy at the same time, in parallel. So, the Swiss can represent their own views in legislative matters, with powers like challenging any Act of parliament or proposing an amendment to the Swiss constitution.

Their democracy score is 8.9, same as ours!