Good Quiz. Maybe a bit nit-picky here, but the United States is not a Democracy. Although it is a "form of elected government" our Constitution "guarantees to every state a Republican form of government". But, good quiz.
Democracy definition 1: a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
Representatives are democratically elected. Then those people who participated in the election have representation in government via their elected representatives. This is a form of democracy. What you are thinking of is direct democracy with universal suffrage, which is a different thing.
"Swing and a miss" for Kalbahamut! Not to get political on Jetpunk, but the United States FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is NOT a Democracy. The stuff you are referring to is state government level stuff AND the representatives of the States. Need Proof Kal?
Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution..."The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a REPUBLICAN form of government..."
Pledge of Allegiance of the United States..."And to the REPUBLIC for which it stands..."
When Mrs. Powell asked Benjamin Franklin what type of government they had created for the people, he replied, "A REPUBLIC Madam, if you can keep it."
Want more? I have a lot more! But, like I said, Good Quiz!
In reality, there is no true democratic country in the world. Heck, no communist country has been an actual communist country. If we go the way JDWI is saying, no country in this list is supposed to be on here. Which means this quiz wouldn't even exist. The belief of democracy is what exists.
I find the debate over whether the US is a democracy is like describing a banana without mentioning the colour. The US is without a doubt a republic, so is China, but rather than being a nasty shade of authoritarian brown it is a democratic yellow. A republic describes a system in which power is not hereditary, what Jefferson described as a 'republic' would now be considered a representative democracy.
Certainly the USA is a democracy, but it is worth noting that non-republics can also be democracies, while republics can be dictatorships. All this obviously makes it very hard to decide where to draw the line, what counts as a democracy, and what does not. Personally, I think QM did a pretty good job of deciding with this quiz.
Thank you! Democracy and republic are overlapping concepts that often harmonize, but not always. They are not mutually exclusive forms of government. This trope about the US being a republic and not a democracy circulates freely in conservative circles. I'm not really sure why, but it's dumb and simple-minded. The US is certainly not a pure democracy, but it's not a pure anything. It's a complicated mess that mostly exists within the overlapping Venn diagram of both democracy and republic.
Members of EU countries elect their representatives. Opponents of the EU such UKIP's Nigel Farage and Front National's Marine Le Pen, have taken advantage of this institution's supposed undemocratic nature by becoming elected representatives themselves.
Only for the EuroParl. There are many unelected positions. I'm not really anti-EU and its certainly not a dictatorship but it is rather undemocratic. It is known as the Democratic Deficit.
The EU a dictatorship? This just might be one of the stupidest comments I have ever seen. The EU is also not undemocratic. In fact I would consider it to be one of the most democratic entities in the world.
Any acceptable definition of democracy must include the idea of universal adult suffrage by secret ballot. Of course that is not enough in itself. A junta could fulfill that requirement but only allow it's own placemen on the ballot. Freedom of speech and of assembly and of the press must also be present.
On these criteria, many countries on this list aught not to be there. Switzerland for example denied half it's population the vote until 1972 when women were belatedly enfranchised. This caveat can be applied to others on the list. Sexism.
Including South Africa on this list is simply offensive.
The world's first democracy was New Zealand not Athens.
these comments are getting more ridiculous all the time.
For a democracy to function perfectly and actually be the wonderful form of government that we are often brainwashed into believing it should be, it must have ALL of the below: 1. a strong and binding but adaptive and flexible secular Constitution that includes safeguards for the rights of minorities. 2. a strong, independent, uncorruptible judiciary. 3. rule of law. 4. a free, independent, uncorruptible press. 5. freedom of speech, expression, assembley et cetera. 6. an educated, informed, engaged electorate.
By these standards, there have been roughly ZERO true democracies in human history.
except that... in order to be defined as a democracy you do not have to be the perfect idealized form of democracy that is impossible to achieve. Because that would be incredibly stupid. No, to be a democracy simply means enfranchised people vote either on legislation directly or on representatives. That's. It.
even people in North Korea or other communist countries can vote. I am from the Czech Republic and we could vote as well during the communist era, only there was only one option and if you didn't vote you were in trouble. Democracy is a little more than that, I believe.
I think that women's suffrage, apartheid etc. are quite good points, too
I think people would argue that those elections are inconsequential or just a sham. If you go to the polls, and you have only one option, you're not really participating in government you are participating in political theater.
Ahhh, South Africa. When can I tell you that South Africa really wasn't a democracy back in the day, and it was ACTUALLY a harsh dictatorship being ran by the minority white population. They oppressed all the other races so much when they were in power. How is THAT democracy if the majority of people are being oppressed by the ruling power?
1) South Africa WAS NOT a democracy during apartheid!!!!
2) In Monaco the Prince APPOINTS The Council of Government at the proposal of the French Government - as far as I understand democracy, this is not quite democratic...
3) Since 2003 Liechtenstein amended its Constitution to allow the Prince to veto any legislation (at his will) how appoints the government, all of the judges etc. - again not quite democratic, if you ask me...
So, I think you should change those entries, and this is without raising any questions about Israel, or Sri Lanka...
1) South Africa was a democracy, just not for everyone. For 2 and 3, As long as they don't have cancelled elections, coups, or become absolute monarchies, then they fit the quiz. Democracy on this quiz just means that people are able to vote, no matter if some weren't allowed
But emergency period was not a dictatorship. It was according to a provision by the constitution to be activated in the face of internal and external threat. Democracy was still uninterrupted during that period although fundamental rights were curbed.
Calling this quiz "longest uninterrupted democracies" was a terrible idea. Though the quiz master stated at the beginning that it was obviously going to be controversial so I guess s/he wanted to start arguments.
Everyone knows democracy is good, and conveniently everyone can find a way of defining it to suit their own political view. East Germany was the German Democratic Republic; Margaret Thatcher called Pinochet a champion of democracy...
I haven't stayed out of the debate, but it's probably better if quizzes avoid obvious controversy and stick to generally accepted and verifiable facts.
There have been so many controversal quizzes on this site, yet for this quiz, it was a terrible idea and that probably better if quizzes avoid obvious controversy and stick to generally accepted and verifiable facts. QM knew from the beginning there was going to be controversy due to some countries, but hey, you can't please everyone. And so what that East Germany was called the 'German Democratic Republic', North Korea is called the 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea, yet they are the least democratic country in the world. And Thatcher calling Pinochet a champion of democracy is hilarious, where did she come up with that joke. But no seriously, Pinochet wasn't a 'champion of democracy', he was a dictator, heck the Wikipedia page for the history of Chile , says "In 1990, Chile made a peaceful transition to democracy" suggesting that Chile wasn't democratic. This has been one of the most ridiculous rants I've ever seen.
Read the caveats. And no, having a country's assasinated or die due to natural causes doesn't mean democracy has been interrupted. It just means they don't have a head of state. If your definition of 'uninterrupted democracy' includes assasinated presidents, then I suggest to change that definition ASAP.
I don't have too much with South Africa on this list, yes apartheid was terrible but as someone else mentioned if we go by everything there would be no list and most countries would be by when women could vote, which in some cases they still can't.
I mean I understand why most commenters are focusing on the 15th Amendment and the Civil Rights era changes because they figure so large in both our history classes and modern political fights. But you're right that women's suffrage (especially the 19th Amendment, but also later expansions to nonwhite women) expanded suffrage to a greater percent of the population.
Other overlooked expansions in the US: reduction of property qualifications for white men in the first half of the 19th century, Native American citizenship in the 1920s, the 26th Amendment in 1971. (The last two were smaller expansions than black suffrage though.)
I think it's discounted because West Germany doesn't exist anymore. You could argue that the West German democracy continued uninterrupted when it re-united with the GDR -- I'm not familiar enough with reunification to say whether that holds water.
I just want to say, chill out people. Political scientists simply do not have consensus on the definition of democracy (look up on Robert Dahl's vs. Joseph Schumpeter's definition). So you can pretty much argue any country as democratic or not, depending on your definition.
Hahahahahaha, very funny. Only a small handful of countries can be considered a continuous democracy. And South Africa WAS NOT a democracy until 1994 thanks to apartheid. And in fact, the world nowadays is becoming less democratic. "Any country can be considered democratic" is a very invalid claim. Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Venezuela, Cuba, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Belarus, and SO MANY MORE can NOT be considered a democracy. If the people are being oppressed by the government and if some or most of them can't vote or participate in the government, then it isn't a democracy.
It clearly WAS a good quiz because it ha made people think carefully about words and definitions, rather than simply regurgitate learned facts. So ... well done !!
Many of the comments are of course based on points of view, much as the answers are, so this quiz doesn't have the normal rigid correct answers, but never mind
having said that .....
HOW ON EARTH HAVE YOU INCLUDED LIECHTENSTEIN? Now I think judged to be the most absolute MONARCHY in the world with the possible exception of Swaziland (sorry - I can never remember the new correct name).
Also i believe that ICELAND has been a representative democratic republic since 1944, or possibly 1946 - and can arguably have the oldest representative elected authority in the world - except of course one can argue that the althing was suspended in the 18th & 19th centuries (possibly)
Well are you said at the beginning of your comment, the answers are based on points of view. Wikipedia calls Liechtenstein's goverment a direct democracy, despite the prince's expanded powers granted by the 2003 constitution. I'm not a political scientist or motivated enough to read up on Leichtensteinian politics in order to make an informed opinion, so instead I'll just I think the Crown Prince threatening to move to Austria if he didn't get expanded veto powers is pretty funny.
Edit: also on Iceland -- from briefly skimming Wikipedia, I'm with you that it should count from 1945 or 46.
I was going to type in Mexico, but then I was reminded of the fact that over 100 political candidates were murdered during their recent election.
Also, those bringing up the Apartheid of South Africa should be aware that that was more of a democracy than what is there now, which is just a 1 party state (wins every election), openly racist parties + persecution of whites (homicide rate 4x that of El-Salvador's).
I'd argue that Mexico, South Africa and Sri Lanka had some dictatorial elements or at least undemocratic characteristics afterwards although they are all democracies today.
fr, Mexico, South Africa, and Sri Lanka should all not be on this list. Not gonna explain why because I already did on like so many other comments/replies.
The title "longest uninterrupted" got me wondering if there are any no long extant democracies that would make the list. Someone mentioned West Germany up thread, but that was only 45 years (unless you count modern Germany as a continuation of it, which it seems most people don't). The French Third Republic (assuming there were no interruptions between 1870 and 1940) would fall off the list this year. Are there any others that lasted longer?
The Roman Republic may have lasted about 200 years. The democracy of Athens lasted about the same span of time. That's just two but there are probably more.
Actually in 1990 the GDR, i.e. the so called new federal states *joined* the FRG. The FRG was not discontinued, but the GDR ceased to exist. Also "West Germany" as name for the FRG was not very common in the FRG. We used "Deutschland" (Germany) when not explicitly referring to one of the two states, and "BRD" or "Bundesrepublik" (FRG) and "DDR" (GDR) when referring to one of them. "Westdeutschland" (West Germany) was (and is still) used in West Berlin to refer to the other federal states of the FRG, where not as a purely geographical indication. It never was any kind of an official name.
I'm just going to add to the general rant here and why not, people should be pissed about the misuse of the word democracy here. Just for my own country, Aboriginal people were not given the right to vote at Federal Elections until 1962. Even the law enacting women's suffrage in 1902 had a caveat -- (except those who were "aboriginal natives" of Australia, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, unless excepted under section 41 of the constitution) And the inclusion of Switzerland here is really baffling. Are the rights of women so unimportant that we can just overlook them? Swiss women were not given the right to vote in all Swiss cantons until 1990. What kind of backward kind of definition of democracy are we dealing with here? (okay when I'm upset I use questions as statements) The inclusion of South Africa is so wrong, surely even the village idiot can work out why.
democracy is rule by the people or all eligible voters. Eligible is a key word. Are you going to rant about denying the vote to felons? To 16 year olds? To foreign expats? There's nothing backward about the definition being used. It's the definition.
And I wonder if by democracy in Israel we include the Palestinians who have been driven off their land and don't even get to vote for the invaders which now subjugate them. They legally have a right to live on that land, and their ancestors may have done so for centuries. So I am going to lay down what I think a basic definition for a democracy should be. There should be universal suffrage for adults -- regardless of gender, race or religion. All of these people should be able to vote; that is there should be no bureaucratic hindrances to them voting(voting registrations made deliberately difficult for certain ethnic and class groups and that kind of bs) or civil hindrances to voting --such as the use of violence, intimidation and bribery.
That seems a reasonable definition. If we used it, pretty much the whole list would have to be changed, and there would be very few countries on it. However, a quiz with this definition of democracy that simply lists all countries that currently meet these qualifications would be very interesting.
If you were only allowed to count countries where nobody in that geographic area had ever been made or encouraged to move or made to feel like they ought to, and no "adult" (arbitrary disenfranchisement right here) had ever had their ability to vote hindered in any way, then I'm confident that list would be 0 entries long.
This is the most unnecessary argument I've ever seen on Jetpunk. There will never be a definitive answer to democracy - North Korea claims it. At least those people who say Cyprus isn't in Asia actually know exactly what continent they believe it is in.
Ah yes, South Africa was definitely a democracy uninterrupted from 1910 to now. Aren't you forgetting something? Bro they had apartheid for a long ass time, so how is that "democracy" if a lot of the people are oppressed and discriminated against. South Africa did not abolish apartheid until 1991, and the first actually free and fair elections with no discrimination were held in 1994.
Mexico may or may not be a democracy nowadays. Even if it is a democracy, it is very flawed and is far from perfect. They have huge issues with the cartels and all of that stuff.
And last but not least, SRI LANKA. This one is very very obvious that it AIN'T A DEMOCRACY NO MORE. Just search up Sri Lanka's massive protests and government issues in 2022.
You could also argue that monarchies like the UK aren't democracies. Despite their past colonial rampages, it has been a CONSTITUTIONAL monarchy, so they count.
You surely don't understand the principles of democracy. Democratic countries are not always good and prosperous nations. It's just the political way of solving political issues, nothing more. For instance, Greece was the first democratic country, but they had slavery and many flaws in rights of people
How so? If you're thinking because of how media portraits as the president being "ousted", it's not, since he was NOT ousted, but he resigned and fled in 2022. Also, the the parliament elected in 2020 was not dissolved and continues on as of today (Dec 2023).
This is a better way of determining if a country is democratic or not. Any country that is a hybrid regime or authoritarian is not a democracy. So Mexico is instantly outta here. Once they update this index for 2023, watch Sri Lanka's score drop hard. Don't know why the score didn't drop in 2022, but whatever.
And South Africa should not be included because they never became democratic until 1994. This can be defined be a single word: apartheid.
Democracy definition 1: a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
Representatives are democratically elected. Then those people who participated in the election have representation in government via their elected representatives. This is a form of democracy. What you are thinking of is direct democracy with universal suffrage, which is a different thing.
Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution..."The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a REPUBLICAN form of government..."
Pledge of Allegiance of the United States..."And to the REPUBLIC for which it stands..."
When Mrs. Powell asked Benjamin Franklin what type of government they had created for the people, he replied, "A REPUBLIC Madam, if you can keep it."
Want more? I have a lot more! But, like I said, Good Quiz!
On these criteria, many countries on this list aught not to be there. Switzerland for example denied half it's population the vote until 1972 when women were belatedly enfranchised. This caveat can be applied to others on the list. Sexism.
Including South Africa on this list is simply offensive.
The world's first democracy was New Zealand not Athens.
For a democracy to function perfectly and actually be the wonderful form of government that we are often brainwashed into believing it should be, it must have ALL of the below: 1. a strong and binding but adaptive and flexible secular Constitution that includes safeguards for the rights of minorities. 2. a strong, independent, uncorruptible judiciary. 3. rule of law. 4. a free, independent, uncorruptible press. 5. freedom of speech, expression, assembley et cetera. 6. an educated, informed, engaged electorate.
By these standards, there have been roughly ZERO true democracies in human history.
except that... in order to be defined as a democracy you do not have to be the perfect idealized form of democracy that is impossible to achieve. Because that would be incredibly stupid. No, to be a democracy simply means enfranchised people vote either on legislation directly or on representatives. That's. It.
I think that women's suffrage, apartheid etc. are quite good points, too
2) In Monaco the Prince APPOINTS The Council of Government at the proposal of the French Government - as far as I understand democracy, this is not quite democratic...
3) Since 2003 Liechtenstein amended its Constitution to allow the Prince to veto any legislation (at his will) how appoints the government, all of the judges etc. - again not quite democratic, if you ask me...
So, I think you should change those entries, and this is without raising any questions about Israel, or Sri Lanka...
Everyone knows democracy is good, and conveniently everyone can find a way of defining it to suit their own political view. East Germany was the German Democratic Republic; Margaret Thatcher called Pinochet a champion of democracy...
I haven't stayed out of the debate, but it's probably better if quizzes avoid obvious controversy and stick to generally accepted and verifiable facts.
Other overlooked expansions in the US: reduction of property qualifications for white men in the first half of the 19th century, Native American citizenship in the 1920s, the 26th Amendment in 1971. (The last two were smaller expansions than black suffrage though.)
The 1907 date is the date when it was relabelled as a 'Dominion', but nothing actually changed on that date other than the label.
It was liberated in 1947 and continues to be a democracy uninterrupted...(as of 31st July 2018)
It clearly WAS a good quiz because it ha made people think carefully about words and definitions, rather than simply regurgitate learned facts. So ... well done !!
Many of the comments are of course based on points of view, much as the answers are, so this quiz doesn't have the normal rigid correct answers, but never mind
having said that .....
HOW ON EARTH HAVE YOU INCLUDED LIECHTENSTEIN? Now I think judged to be the most absolute MONARCHY in the world with the possible exception of Swaziland (sorry - I can never remember the new correct name).
Also i believe that ICELAND has been a representative democratic republic since 1944, or possibly 1946 - and can arguably have the oldest representative elected authority in the world - except of course one can argue that the althing was suspended in the 18th & 19th centuries (possibly)
Dave
Eswatini. Google is your friend :P
>HOW ON EARTH HAVE YOU INCLUDED LIECHTENSTEIN
Well are you said at the beginning of your comment, the answers are based on points of view. Wikipedia calls Liechtenstein's goverment a direct democracy, despite the prince's expanded powers granted by the 2003 constitution. I'm not a political scientist or motivated enough to read up on Leichtensteinian politics in order to make an informed opinion, so instead I'll just I think the Crown Prince threatening to move to Austria if he didn't get expanded veto powers is pretty funny.
Edit: also on Iceland -- from briefly skimming Wikipedia, I'm with you that it should count from 1945 or 46.
Also, those bringing up the Apartheid of South Africa should be aware that that was more of a democracy than what is there now, which is just a 1 party state (wins every election), openly racist parties + persecution of whites (homicide rate 4x that of El-Salvador's).
Coup here we come!
and I typed liechtenstein monaco sweden and switzerland at last ten seconds
Mexico may or may not be a democracy nowadays. Even if it is a democracy, it is very flawed and is far from perfect. They have huge issues with the cartels and all of that stuff.
And last but not least, SRI LANKA. This one is very very obvious that it AIN'T A DEMOCRACY NO MORE. Just search up Sri Lanka's massive protests and government issues in 2022.
You could also argue that monarchies like the UK aren't democracies. Despite their past colonial rampages, it has been a CONSTITUTIONAL monarchy, so they count.
This is a better way of determining if a country is democratic or not. Any country that is a hybrid regime or authoritarian is not a democracy. So Mexico is instantly outta here. Once they update this index for 2023, watch Sri Lanka's score drop hard. Don't know why the score didn't drop in 2022, but whatever.
And South Africa should not be included because they never became democratic until 1994. This can be defined be a single word: apartheid.