Democracy?

I'm a sucker for maps. Here are two that seem worth pondering:

Click to enlarge.

Not looking good for democracy outside of Europe (though the sheer extent of Canada and Australia make things look better than they might.) I have my doubts about Chile's ranking here (a progressive elected president was immediately challenged from the right) and I'm pretty sure that Modi's Hindustan makes India more than flawed. But still worth thinking about.

Danny Quah from Singapore provides another way to look at this, a salutary reminder of where most of humankind lives. For those of us who think democracy matters, we are reminded that the truly large states are not democracies. Whether that's what their people want may be invisible from where we sit.