“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.” These were the exact words of Abraham Lincoln on August 1, 1858. In lucid terms, democracy can be described as “of the people, by the people, for the people.” According to 'Our World in Data', in 1900, the world had only 1 democratic nation. In 2018, 99 countries in the world were democracies. Democracy, although not universally, is widely believed to be lucrative. However, many of both its proponents and disparagers insist that examples of absolute democracy are hard to find. There have been estimations of it, but often the rule of a particular section of the people is superior to ‘rule of the people’, or is a front for the power of absolute economic interests. In an attempt to measure the state of democracy in various countries, the Economist Intelligence Unit, a UK based company produced the Democr
I f you Google the term ‘nation branding’, it is described as applying corporate branding techniques to a country. This is precisely what every country does. Nations care about their image more than anything else. It is not just used to attract tourists. Countries also use catchy slogans to attract FDIs. Simon Anholt, an independent policy advisor who helps countries develop strategies to strength economy and enrich political engagement with other countries gets requests every week from countries to discuss about branding campaigns. Nation branding is a million-dollar industry. Tourism branding is dominating nation branding efforts especially in countries like Australia where tourism generates a lot of revenue. Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index was introduced by Anholt and Ipsos Mori wherein they collect data from millions of people and rank countries according to their brand value on the basis of tourism, exposure, governance, people, culture and heritage, investment and