Taiwan the most democratic country in East Asia, per Economist

OysterOmelet · February 3, 2021, 9:03am

Marco · February 3, 2021, 9:14am

Certainly accurate.

Freedom House puts Taiwan only behind Japan in Asia.

Gain · February 3, 2021, 4:18pm

It’s not just the most democratic in Asia. Taiwan scored dubiously high this year. This is how the ranking goes:

1- Norway
2- Iceland
3- Sweden
4- New Zealand
5- Canada
6- Finland1
7- Denmark
8- Ireland
9 (tie)- Australia
9 (tie)- The Netherlands
11- Taiwan
12- Switzerland (wtf?)
14- Germany (wtf?)
15- United Kingdom
21- Japan
23- South Korea
24- France
25- United States

And their reasoning for this preposterously high rank is:

Taiwan: the year’s biggest winner
The star-performer in this year’s Democracy Index, measured by the change in both its score and rank, is Taiwan, which was upgraded from a “flawed democracy” to a “full democracy”, after rising 20 places in the global ranking from 31st place to 11th (see box on page 32). In a year notable for having few winners, Taiwan’s performance was spectacular. The country’s score rose by more than any other country in the 2020 index. Taiwan went to the polls in January 2020, and the national elections demonstrated the resilience of its democracy at a time when electoral processes, parliamentary oversight and civil liberties have been backsliding globally. There was a strong voter turnout, including among the younger generation, to elect the president and members of the Legislative Yuan (parliament). Overall, the country seems to have concluded that a well-functioning democracy represents the best means of safeguarding its future

Which I guess is largely true, but being ranked higher than Switzerland and Germany is still completely nonsensical. The corrupt-as-shit countryside alone should knock Taiwan down at least 10 places. And I don’t even like Germany and Switzerland.