democracy
Latin America Clamours For Democracy
LATIN Americans are demanding more of their democracies, their institutions and governments; they worry about crime almost as much as about economic problems; and fewer of them think that their country is progressing. Those are some of the findings of the latest Latinobarómetro poll, taken in 18 countries and published exclusively by The Economist. Because the poll has been taken regularly since 1995, it does a good job showing how attitudes in the region are changing.
Despite Latin America’s strong recovery from the recession of 2008-09, this year’s poll, which was taken in July and August, reveals some diffuse discontents. It suggests that little over half of Latin Americans are convinced democrats, a fall of three points since last year.Guatemala,Honduras and Mexico all saw a sharp slump in support for democracy, probably because of high levels of violent crime in all those countries. Only 45% of Brazilian respondents were convinced democrats, a nine-point fall from last year: it is harder to pinpoint why, except perhaps that Dilma Rousseff, the new president has taken a tough line on corruption, thus drawing more attention to it.
gender Inequality and Democracy : Country Comparison
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Gender inequality varies tremendously across countries—the losses in achievement due to gender inequality (not directly comparable to total inequality losses because different variables are used) range from 17 percent to 85 percent.
Countries with unequal distribution of human development also experience high inequality between women and men, and countries with high gender inequality also experience unequal distribution of human development.( source : UNDP : United Nations Human Development report)
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ON SEPTEMBER 25th Saudi Arabia, the world’s seventh least-democratic country according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister company, announced that from 2015 it would allow women to vote and stand in municipal elections. Women have a particularly hard time in Saudi Arabia, which was the last country with some elections to deny women the vote. They must seek permission from a male guardian (often their husband or father, but sometimes their son) before they work, travel and marry, and they are not allowed to drive. Charting the relationship between democracy and the level of inequality between sexes (measured by the UN’s gender-inequality index) reveals a strong relationship between the two (an R²of 46%). But those expecting a woman’s lot to improve now some democratic concessions have been made should look at the outliers: in both India and Papua New Guinea, countries with high levels of democracy, inequality between the sexes remains just as marked, suggesting that this relationship is more complicated than it first appears.( source : Economist)
COMPARISON CHARTS 