Author: Common Dreams

A new index released recently offered a sobering look at how the style of democracy in the United States is classified compared to other countries. According to the 2018 edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, the United States does not even make the list of Top 20. Its demonstrably “flawed democracy” landed at the 25th spot. The ranking is based on 60 indicators spanning five interrelated categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Each category gets a 0-10 score, with the final score being the average of those...

Photo by Gage Skidmore and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Completing what critics have denounced as a “legislative coup,” Wisconsin’s outgoing Republican Governor Scott Walker on Friday signed into law a series of bills that will dramatically weaken the authority of the newly elected Democratic governor and attorney general, enhance the power of the Republican-dominated state legislature, and significantly roll back voting rights. “This is the kind of thing autocrats do,” Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman declared on Twitter. “A very dark day for democracy in Wisconsin.” “Today, Governor Walker chose to ignore and override the will of the...