Government > Democracy and rights Stats: compare key data on India & United States
Definitions
- Amnesty international reports about country, top 10: Compares countries based on the number of reports that Amnesty International has written about them from 1986 to 2000. Shows only the top 10 countries of the list. The data was gathered by James Ron (McGill University); Howard Ramos (Dalhousie University); Kathleen Rodgers (McGill University), for an article (see source) that analyzes the methods followed by human rights' watchdog organizations
- Electoral system: Political scientist Robert A. Dahl compares the constitutions of countries which have been “steadily democratic since 1950” on the characteristic of electoral system (First Past the Post electoral system; Single-Member District Plurality, also known as First Past the Post (FPTP): There is one seat per district, the candidate with the most votes wins it; Proportional Representation: There are multiple seats for each voting district, allocation is based on either party lists, multi-member proportional (MMP), single transferable vote (STV) or semi-PR; FrenchTtwo-RoundSsystem; Alternative Vote (AV)).
- Freedom of the press: Compares countries by freedom of the press. The lower the score, the more free the press of that country is. The scores are taken from the Freedom of the Press Index, elaborated by Freedom House, self-defined as "an independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom around the world". The data used in the index come from an annual survey of media independence in 197 countries and territories, assessing the degree of print, broadcast, and internet freedom in each of them.
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Last election:
Last election.
No date was available from the Wikipedia article, so we used the date of retrieval.
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Major left wing party:
Left-wing major party.
No date was available from the Wikipedia article, so we used the date of retrieval.
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Major right wing party:
Right-wing major party.
No date was available from the Wikipedia article, so we used the date of retrieval.
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Next election:
Next election.
No date was available from the Wikipedia article, so we used the date of retrieval.
- Party system: Political scientist Robert A. Dahl compares the constitutions of countries which have been “steadily democratic since 1950” on the characteristic of party system (two-party or multi-party).
- Press freedom index: Compares countries by their degree of government censorship, according to the Press freedom index. This index, created by the non-governmental organization Reporters without borders (RWS), is ellaborated using data from an extensive annual survey sent to professional reporters throughout the world. The survey contains questions about the type and ownership of media present in the country, freedom of speech, violence exerted against reporters, election campaigns, access of political parties to the media, etc.
- Strong judicial review?: Political scientist Robert A. Dahl compares the constitutions of countries which have been “steadily democratic since 1950” on the characteristic of judicial review, which is the power to declare unconstitutional laws duly passed by parliament and/or signed by the president. (As distinct from the ability to strike down acts of subordinate governments, such as states or provinces. (Strong judicial review or no strong judicial review).
- Strongly federal?: Political scientist Robert A. Dahl compares the constitutions of countries which have been “steadily democratic since 1950” on the characteristic of federalism (strongly federal or not strongly federal).
- Structure: Political scientist Robert A. Dahl compares the constitutions of countries which have been “steadily democratic since 1950” on the characteristic of structure (presidential or parliamentary).
- Year women first voted at national level: Year women first voted at national level.
SOURCES: http://www.mcgill.ca/files/rgchr/ISQsubmission.pdf James Ronand, Howard Ramos, Kathleen Rodgers (2005), "Transnational Information Politics: NGO Human Rights Reporting, 1986–2000", International Studies Quarterly (2005) 49, 557–587; How Democratic is the American Constitution? Robert A. Dahl.2001. ISBN 0-300-09218-0. Table 1.; "2012 Freedom of the Press Data" , Freedom House, 1 May 2012; Wikipedia: List of next general elections (Africa); Wikipedia: Major party (List of major parties); Wikipedia: Censorship by country (Censorship by country) ("Press Freedom Index 2013" , Reporters Without Borders, 30 January 2013); Wikipedia: Women's suffrage (Summary)
