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There are two most known methods to evaluate the degree of democracy in a country.
First, the Democracy Index which is compiled by The Economist. It is a kind of weighted average based on the answers of 60 questions, each one with either two or three permitted alternative answers. Most answers are "experts' assessments". This Index is focused on five general categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture. The Index is scored on a scale from zero to ten, the highest result.
Second, the Freedom House publishes an annual report- Freedom in the World, on the degree of democratic freedoms, on a scale from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free). The research and ratings process involved two dozen analysts and more than a dozen senior-level academic advisors. The eight members of the core research team headquartered in New York, along 16 outside consultant analysts, prepared the country and territory reports. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information—including foreign and domestic news reports, academic analyses, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region—in preparing the reports.
It is desirable to construct a very simple Democracy Index, which can be easily understandable and even easily evaluated by any citizen.
The following kind of the Democracy Index probably satisfies these conditions.
The Democracy Index should be calculated as ratio of television time given up to the opposition (or to support the opposition) to television time given up to the government (or to support the government), multiplied by 100%, i.e.
DI = To/Tg * 100%,
where:
DI - Democracy Index,
Tg - television time given up to the opposition (or to support the opposition),
To - television time given up to the government (or to support the government).
Example. During the month, television time given up to the opposition (or to support the opposition) was 6 hours, and television time given up to the government (or to support the government) was 120 hours. In this case, Democracy Index is (6/120)*100% = 5%
Notes. 1) Only television time of the state channels (and channels controlled by the government) should be taken into account;
2) Democracy Index should be calculated for a long period of time, e.g. for a month or for a year.
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