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Q10. Why doesn’t every country in the world become a democratic state?

A. Because there are still people who believe there’s a better system of government, even though it doesn’t exist.

Answered by Masaki Taniguchi
Professor,

Political Science

Only thirty percent of the world’s population live in democratic countries

Democratic government in its original sense requires adequate guarantees on individual freedoms and widespread political participation among its citizens. According to a report published by the V-Dem Institute in Sweden, democratic countries in this sense are in the minority, accounting for only 30% of the world’s population. In recent years there have even been cases of countries stepping back from this form of government.

Here, I would like to refer to a famous quote from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” In what sense is democratic government the “worst”?

In reality, for most of human history, democratic government has not had a particularly positive image. In his book Politics, Aristotle proposed six types of government, based on the number of rulers (the one/the few/the many) and the goals (for the rulers/for the common interest). Democratic government is the type that involves rule by the many, for the rulers, and Aristotle places this system in the B class, ranked fourth in terms of its merits.

The systems included in the A class, considered better than democratic government, are those in which the rulers govern in the common interest, which are in order of preference: monarchy, aristocracy and polity. Monarchy, which ranks first, could be seen as something like the regimes that existed under ancient Chinese emperors such as Yao and Shun as described in the Records of the Grand Historian. A system in which a single “benevolent ruler” makes swift decisions certainly seems more efficient than the long and fruitless debates that characterize democratic government.

No better system than democratic government

Emperors such as Yao and Shun, however, are no more than figures of legend. There are no real-life examples of an individual or small group of leaders ruling solely in the interests of all the people they rule. Moreover, once a dictator or minority elite begins to rule in their own interests, it becomes the worst possible form of government. To imagine such a scenario, you need only call to mind figures such as Hitler and Stalin. There may be a more desirable system of government in theory, but in actual fact, the only types of government seen in human history thus far are democratic government, and systems that are worse than it. This is what Churchill meant in his words that I mentioned earlier.

Democratic government cannot be considered the “best” system of government that is theoretically possible, but it is the “least bad” among those systems that actually exist. Nonetheless, some people are still convinced that it will be possible to find a better system than democratic government, and others advocate for such a possibility despite knowing it to be false. That is the answer to the question above.

In the aforementioned V-Dem ranking of democratic governments, Japan performs reasonably well, in 28th place out of 179 countries. But there is no goal line for democratic government. Trends such as populism and mistrust of politics are clearly on the rise in many developed countries today, and Japan also faces a host of intractable problems such as ballooning public debt and population decline owing to aging and low birthrate. In my research, I’m constantly exploring better models for political institutions such as parliaments and political parties, and for political communication among people, in order to maintain a healthy democratic government that doesn’t buckle under these compounding problems.

Democratic Government Rankings by Country (from the )

1	厂飞别诲别苍	0.88
2	顿别苍尘补谤办	0.88
3	狈辞谤飞补测	0.86
4	Costa Rica	0.85
5	New Zealand	0.84
6	贰蝉迟辞苍颈补	0.84
7	厂飞颈迟锄别谤濒补苍诲	0.84
8	贵颈苍濒补苍诲	0.83
9	骋别谤尘补苍测	0.82
10	滨谤别濒补苍诲	0.82
11	叠别濒驳颈耻尘	0.82
12	笔辞谤迟耻驳补濒	0.81
13	狈别迟丑别谤濒补苍诲蝉	0.81
14	础耻蝉迟谤补濒颈补	0.81
15	尝耻虫别尘产辞耻谤驳	0.8
16	贵谤补苍肠别	0.79
17	South Korea	0.79
18	厂辫补颈苍	0.78
19	United Kingdom	0.78
20	滨迟补濒测	0.77
21	颁丑颈濒别	0.77
22	厂濒辞惫补办颈补	0.77
23	鲍谤耻驳耻补测	0.76
24	颁补苍补诲补	0.75
25	滨肠别濒补苍诲	0.75
26	础耻蝉迟谤颈补	0.75
27	尝颈迟丑耻补苍颈补	0.74
28	闯补辫补苍	0.74
29	United States	0.74
30	尝补迟惫颈补	0.73

 

Extracted from rankings produced annually by the V-Dem Institute, headquartered in the University of Gothenburg, based on more than 470 indicators. Other rankings of the same type include the UK’s The Economist ranking, the 2021 edition of which ranked Japan 17th (Norway took first place).

* This article was originally printed in Tansei 45 (Japanese language only). All information in this article is as of September 2022.