Something to be proud of

New Zealand ranks 5th in the world for democracy, behind the usual Nordic suspects, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index. Unfortunately the full report isn't available without giving The Economist your data (no thanks), but the ranking is based not just on electoral processes and civil liberties, but also on political participation, functioning of government and political culture. New Zealand is likely to score badly on turnout, participation and trust in government. Still, its pretty good despite those flaws, and we're miles ahead of the US, which languishes on 19th.