How China Is The Most Democratic Country In The World
According to a global survey, “the countries considered most democratic by their citizens are China, Vietnam, and Taiwan”
These indexes are usually bullshit and, indeed, the Latana Democracy Perception Index editorializes with a bunch of American propaganda points about Ukraine and Taiwan before getting to the actual point:
“The countries considered most democratic by their citizens are China*, Vietnam, and Taiwan.”
They put the asterix on China because “*In some countries surveyed the government plays an active role in shaping public opinion,” as if Americans aren’t the most actively propagandized people on Earth.
The merit of this index, despite its best efforts, is that they actually surveyed 52,785 people and had to report what they said. Latana still divides the world into ‘Free’ and ‘Less Free’, but what people actually say is the complete opposite.
The real surprise is that communist countries like China and Vietnam think that their countries are democratic. As much as Latana tries to editorialize the title into a negative, that’s the result.
In the West, it’s assumed that people want politicians, which we obviously don’t. People want results, like having baby formula and not dying in a plague. On those counts, East Asian, communist countries actually deliver, and people give them props.
Chinese Democracy
I have previously asked about the paradox of Chinese Democracy in a series. First from an ancient philosophical perspective and then from a modern observational one. What we have here is not so theoretical. It’s just what the people concerned actually think. And people's opinions seem to bear the theory out.
The Greeks never had the modern magical belief in democracy, it was simply a means to an end, not an intrinsic good. And they never thought democracy was just elections, that was just one form, and one…
