[fileyfood500]

The study is suspect. The transition of a country from non-democratic to single party democracy to multi-party democracy can be tracked reasonably well. Scoring multi-party democracies is more problematic. For example, the study uses data claiming the US is down 7 points, which is quite significant given that the entire global decrease cited in the study is only a few points. The US continues to be a multi-party democracy where rights and freedoms have actually expanded over the last decade, for example adding by additional rights for gay marriage. Universal health care in the US could be viewed as a loss of freedom, but I perhaps incorrectly assume the article is “left-wing” from a US standpoint and is viewing the Trump presidency as the loss in rights. On the contrary, the large protests over discrimination that has existed for 300 years are helping increase freedoms, and the deportation/lack of rights for immigrants is open for debate in the context of a democracy score, where those born in the country are given the rights. Election turnout and voting system technology had continued to improve, and scrutiny of fraud continues to hone in at more and more granular levels (national news about inconsistent practices at a town level). Overall, the conclusions of the study merit skepticism given the arbitrariness of democratic scoring. The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is clear, and those metrics are clear/transparent.

[Juliate]

"single party democracy"? seriously?

[fileyfood500]

Countries where regular elections are held with a single party/major candidate. Minor opposition candidates may be present but may not capture a large share of the votes. A positive indicator for a democratic system is regular transition of power, and a system in which a single person is consistently re-elected, or a single party. If the voter has only 1 choice in an election, the election is less democratic than one with multiple choices

[brainwad]

This means countries like Japan or Singapore, where while technically multi-party, in practice the opposition parties never win. Obviously a country where other parties are outlawed (e.g. communist countries) is not a single party democracy, it's just a single party dictatorship.