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Erik Moberg ©

A first comment on the distinction between democracies and quasi-democracies

The tables 5, 6 and 7 in the Appendix include, as I write there, not only all democracies in the world but also a number of quasi-democracies. The reason is that the criteria used for selecting the states in the tables are necessary conditions for democracy but not sufficient ones. Thus, and even if some fundamental formal democratic rules are followed, there may, in some states, be so much corruption and/or so limited mass media freedom that they have to characterized as quasi-democracies rather than democracies.

Here I will now start an effort to separate the real democracies from the quasi-democracies and I will do that by using the “Corruptions perceptions index 2016”. Corruption is here defined as “the misuse of public power for private benefit” and the indexes arrived at are the results of expert assessments and opinion surveys. The scale is from 100, standing for no corruption at all, to 0, standing for totally corrupt.

The result is shown in the table below. The table contains all the states in the tables 5, 6 and 7 in the Appendix except, as explained in the Appendix, Andorra, Lichtenstein, Monaco and Burkina Faso, and also except a number of states for which no corruption index is given in the source used. The states are ordered according to their corruption indexes.

Table: Corruption indexes for democracies and quasi-democracies

Denmark, 90	Slovenia, 61	South Africa, 45
New Zealand, 90	Taiwan, 61	Senegal, 45
Finland, 89	Botswana, 60	Surinam, 45
Sweden, 88	Saint Lucia, 60	Greece, 44
Switzerland, 86	Saint Vincent and	Ghana, 43
Norway, 85	the Grenadines, 60	Solomon Islands, 42
Netherlands, 83	Cape Verde, 59	Serbia, 42
Canada, 82	Dominica, 59	Tunisia, 41
Luxembourg, 81	Lithuania, 59	Turkey, 41
Germany, 81	Costa Rica, 58	Brazil, 40
United Kingdom, 81	Spain, 58	India, 40
Australia, 79	Georgia, 57	Bosnia and
Iceland, 78	Latvia, 57	Herzegovina, 39
Belgium, 77	Grenada, 56	Lesotho, 39
Austria, 75	Cyprus, 55	Mongolia, 38
United States, 74	Czech Republic, 55	Panama, 38
Ireland, 73	Malta, 55	Indonesia, 37
Japan, 72	Mauritius, 54	Liberia, 37
Uruguay, 71	South Korea, 53	Macedonia, 37
Estonia, 70	Namibia, 52	Argentina, 36
France, 69	Slovakia, 51	Benin, 36
Bahamas, 66	Croatia, 49	El Salvador, 36
Chile, 66	Hungary, 48	Kosovo, 36
Bhutan, 65	Romania, 48	Niger, 35
Israel, 64	Italy, 47	Peru, 35
Poland, 62	São Tomé	Philippines, 35
Portugal, 62	and Príncipe, 46
Barbados, 61	Montenegro, 45

Even if the table is interesting it gives no clear border-line between democracies and quasi-democracies. For that more detailed examinations of individual states must be undertaken, and I will come back to that later on. The only thing that can be said is that the real democracies tend to be found in the “left or upper” part of the table and the quasi-democracies, correspondingly, in the “right or lower” part.

The corruption indexes can however be used in another interesting way, namely for a comparison with GDP/capita. Here, at first, is a diagram presenting the correlation between GDP/capita and the level of corruption. The correlation is, as is easily seen, striking.

Diagram: Correlation between GDP/capita and level of corruption

The diagram does however not contain the written names of all the states indicated, that would have been too messy. The table below does however give all that information completely. And the table also shows which of the states, in the Appendix tables, for which corruption indexes are missing. The relevant cells are empty.

Table: GDP/capita (international dollars 2016) and corruption indexes for democracies and quasi-democracies

First part of the table			Second part of the table
Luxembourg	104 003	81	Montenegro	16 643	45
Norway	69 249	85	Costa Rica	16 436	58
Ireland	69 231	73	Palau	15 319
Switzerland	59 561	86	Brazil	15 242	40
San Marino	59 058		Macedonia	14 597	37
United States	57 436	74	Serbia	14 493	42
Netherlands	51 049	83	Grenada	14 116	56
Sweden	49 836	88	Surinam	13 988	45
Iceland	49 136	78	South Africa	13 225	45
Australia	48 899	79	Peru	12 903	35
Germany	48 111	81	Mongolia	12 275	38
Taiwan	48 095	61	Saint Lucia	11 783	60
Austria	48 005	75	Indonesia	11 720	37
Denmark	47 985	90	Tunisia	11 634	41
Canada	46 437	82	Nauru	11 539
Belgium	45 047	77	Dominica	11 375	59
United Kingdom	42 481	81	Namibia	11 290	52
France	42 314	69	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	11 271	60
Finland	42 165	89	Ecuador	11 109	31
Japan	41 275	72	Bosnia and Herzegovina	10 958	39
Malta	39 834	55	Kosovo	10 235	36
South Korea	37 740	53	Georgia	10 044	57
New Zealand	37 294	90	Paraguay	9 396	30
Italy	36 833	47	El Salvador	8 909	36
Spain	36 416	58	Bhutan	8 227	65
Israel	35 179	64	Belize	8 220
Cyprus	34 970	55	Guyana	7 873	34
Czech Republic	33 232	55	Philippines	7 728	35
Slovenia	32 085	61	Bolivia	7 218	33
Trinidad and Tobago	31 870	35	Cape Verde	6 662	59
Slovakia	31 339	51	India	6 616	40
Lithuania	29 972	59	Samoa	5 553
Estonia	29 313	70	Tonga	5 386
Portugal	28 933	62	Moldova	5 328	30
Poland	27 764	62	Ghana	4 412	43
Seychelles	27 602		Timor-Leste	4 187	35
Hungary	27 482	48	Federated States of Micronesia	3 900
Greece	26 669	44	Lesotho	3 601	39
Saint Kitts and Nevis	25 940		Tuvalu	3 567
Latvia	25 710	57	Papua New Guinea	3 541	28
Antigua and Barbuda	25 157		Marshall Islands	3 301
Turkey	24 912	41	Tanzania	3 080	32
Bahamas	24 555	66	Sao Tome and Principe	3 072	46
Chile	24 113	66	Vanuatu	2 631
Panama	23 024	38	Senegal	2 577	45
Croatia	22 795	49	Benin	2 119	36
Romania	22 348	48	Solomon Islands	1 973	42
Uruguay	21 527	71	Kiribati	1 823
Mauritius	20 422	54	Sierra Leone	1 672	30
Argentina	20 047	36	Comoros	1 529	24
Mexico	18 938	30	Malawi	1 134	31
Barbados	17 100	61	Niger	1 107	35
Botswana	17 042	60	Liberia	855	37

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