The Economist attempts to rank the world’s democracies. The methodology is as important as the results. Take, for example, question 14:
14. Is the legislature the supreme political body, with a clear supremacy over other branches of government?
The UK scores a point for this test – I suspect that the US did not.
What is perhaps most interesting for me is that Canada and Australia, whose forms of government are a mix of English and American influence, along with, of course, their own innovations, score more highly than either Britain or America.
13% of the world’s population, by this estimation, live in democracies – a depressingly small exception to the norm.