Rules TBD.
The data is coming from the world's largest democracy perception study, published by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation (a Danish-based non-profit organisation).
This should be improved with adding more countries, like Russia, then comparing with other important data, like freedom of expression, to be somehow relevant to any discussion
Yes, and after time on RedNote, I believe it's because of them simply believing what western media says about it, but since they're not also living in it, they don't get to also see the negatives.
Damn evil CCP brainwashing their people to think that democracy is important /s
Democracies have never been anything other than disguised oligarchies. As good old Blanqui said: "What is a democrat, I pray you? It is a vague, banal word, without precise meaning, a rubber word. Everyone claims to be a democrat."
Assuming this is a reasonable representation of public opinion in the two countries (and I don't yet have reason to assume otherwise, despite the neoliberal position of the founders of the institute commissioning the survey), I now think it would be interesting to see a breakdown, country by country, of the discrepancy between public perception of democracy and independent observers' ratings of democracy in those same countries.
The perception of democracy by a country's own people is likely the strongest indicator of its health. After all, what could be more relevant than the lived experience of the populace? If people don't feel that their government serves them, then external ratings showing otherwise, however meticulously compiled, miss the core reality of the situation.
Furthermore, coming up with a truly comprehensive and universally agreed-upon rating system for democracy is itself a non-trivial challenge. Would such a rating heavily weigh material conditions, levels of inequality, access to public services, or more abstract freedoms like speech and assembly? And crucially, who decides which of these aspects are the most important or hold the greatest weight in determining a nation's democratic standing?
independent observers
How are you determining "independent"?
this is giving off
vibes
accurate description of how surveys are conducted in fascist states like the US, UK, and France
lol, why did you throw in France specifically?
since it was part of the survey
That's literally UK