The United States was just officially demoted from a “full democracy” to “flawed democracy”

United States President, Donald Trump

The United States has been demoted — it is no longer a “full democracy,” but officially a flawed one, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU.

The EIU issues an annual report, The Democracy Index, which ranks nations under four categories: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime.

The latest index, in which America’s score fell to 7.98 (8.00 is required to be a full democracy), is titled for a probable explanation: Democracy Index 2016, Revenge of the Deplorables.

The United States in now ranked below Japan, the top-rated flawed democracy, and above Italy, which is not known for its smoothness of political process.

The EIU report says the decline “reflects an erosion of confidence in government and public institutions over many years” as “public trust in government has been on a steady downward trend since shortly after the September 11th attacks in 2001.”

Donald Trump, who the report notes was elected by “exploiting this trust deficit and tapping into Americans’ anger and frustration with the functioning of their democratic institutions and representatives,” is not to blame. To wit, “his candidacy was not the cause of the deterioration in trust but rather a consequence of it.”

The Index attributes the fall from full democracy to multiple factors which have undermined confidence in institutes over the course of decades: the Vietnam War, Watergate scandal, Iraqs, and the housing/financial crisis of 2008-2009.

Drawing a resonant theme from the 2016 election, the EIU found “income inequality has also been a key underlying factor,” and is greater in the US than in other rich countries. “Studies show that higher income inequality reduces trust in others and social capital—this is linked to a notion of fairness,” says the report.

Another factor cited for the slide was deepening partisanship, contributed to by gerrymandering.
“The ideological entrenchment of congressional representatives fosters deadlock,” according to the EIU. “Bitter partisanship has developed, in part because many congressional districts have been redrawn in a way that gives one party a built-in advantage.”

This results in the inability to compromise, as “members of Congress fear a challenge in their party primaries, which are controlled by the party base, and are consequently incentivised to move to the right (for Republicans) or to the left (for Democrats).” That refusal to compromise, says the report, “reinforces a lack of confidence in Congress among voters.”