THE NORWEGIAN PARAMOUNTCY

 

“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 Democracy Index in 2006. The index measures civil liberty, pluralism and political culture of the countries and based on the ranking and the score, the index categorises countries into full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid democracies and authoritarian democracies.

 

After a look at the list of democracies, it can be discovered that most of the democracies in the world are in fact flawed or hybrid democracies. Merely twenty countries are classified as full democracies with a numeric score of 9 or above.

 

It is  astounding to find out that a mountainous, Scandinavian country, Norway, with a mere population of slightly more than 5 million individuals ranks number one in the democracy index with a numeric score of 9.87. This suggests that Norway is the pre-eminent democracy with a score of ten on ten in pluralism, political participation and political culture and a score of 9.64 and 9.71 in functioning of government and civil liberties respectively. Both the government and the citizens can be credited for this.

 

Norway is headed by the Prime Minister and governed by the cabinet and a 169-seat parliament elected every 4 years. The average age of representatives is declining in every election. 40% of the lawmakers are women.

 

You see, a country, especially a democratic country is not just made up of its government. The citizens play a greater role in sustaining a nation. In Norway, citizens are well aware of the importance of their votes and that not voting is not an option for them. Lawmakers are considered as normal people and not elite individuals.

 

The best aspect of Norwegian democracy is the fact that there is a vibrant and healthy competition between parties. Unlike in other countries, opponent parties do not bring each other down in order to get elected. The political discussion climate is really pleasant. There is less confrontation and more cooperation between parties. There is fair election and no corruption or lobbying is used to influence the results.

 

Almost every citizen who is eligible to vote participates in the election. There is a fairly strong representation of women in the voting procedure. The youth of the nation is highly engaged in the voting procedure. Therefore, there is almost a 78% turnout. The vote registration is automatic and hence there is not much of a head log for registration.

 

All the aforementioned points delineate that Norwegian citizens are extremely vigilant about their choices in elections which in turn results in a well-formed government. The taxes are pretty high but all of it goes into augmenting healthcare facilities in the nation due to which the citizens are content with the government.

 

Again, it is staggering that out the top 10 best democracies on the Democracy Index, most of them are European countries including Norway, Denmark, Germany etc. This suggests that something must be common in these countries that facilitates smooth electing and functioning of government. It is established that all these countries have a very low population of merely a couple of millions of people. In addition to that, these countries haven’t faced the problem of migration in decades. Furthermore, the income gap between the citizens is extremely low in these countries. All of these insinuate that it is fairly easier to uphold the democratic solidarity in nations with less population and sustained wealth.

 

There are various developed countries who do not fall under the category of full democracy. This implies that wealth, investments, etc. do not affect the quality of democracy in a country. It all comes down to the citizens. Globally, every individual should make an effort to elect governments that work for people and not for their selfish motives. If everyone takes this liability on themselves, the world will be a better place to live in and governments will be bound to take better decisions.