How Many Democracies Are There Really?

Logosofia no Dia a Dia · Jun 30, 2026 · 26m · transcript

The Economist Intelligence Unit's 2025 Democracy Index says democracy has stabilized after eight years of decline. But the headline masks a deeper fragmentation: only 22 of 167 countries qualify as full democracies, and the mechanisms that make them work vary wildly. This episode unpacks what "Western democracy" actually means by comparing electoral systems, judicial power, and constitutional design across Germany, Israel, the United States, and beyond. When Denmark and Hungary both count as Western democracies but score worlds apart on liberal democracy indices, the category starts to break…