{"id":13046,"date":"2021-02-19T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/172-105-121-241.ip.linodeusercontent.com\/?p=13046"},"modified":"2023-10-25T15:54:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T07:54:28","slug":"%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b4%d1%87%d0%b8%d0%bb%d0%bb%d1%8b%d0%bd-%d2%af%d0%bd%d1%8d-%d1%86%d1%8d%d0%bd%d1%8d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/?p=13046&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"The value of Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a democracy, political decisions are made considering the majority\u2019s will. That does not mean those decisions are always democratic. The majority\u2019s will also has to ensure the rights of individuals and minorities to be democratic in essence. Therefore, implementing democratic decisions is intrinsically the duty of the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right here, we can observe the often overlooked difference between democracy and freedom, which are perceived as equal. Democracy is institutionalization or, in a deeper sense, the combination of principles and acts of protecting freedom. Democracy must at least be characterized by a majority rule, a government based on the acceptance of all citizens, free and fair elections, the protection of minority rights, and respect for fundamental human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how democratic is Mongolia? We are relatively familiar with reports from Freedom House, the ranking of countries by the measurement of freedom. This article will highlight the 2020 report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the ranking by the measurement of democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The face of democracy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EIU has published the Democracy Index for 14 consecutive years. The index rates the state of democracy in each country on a scale of 1 out of 10: with 8-10 indicating full democracy, 6-7.9 for flawed democracy, 4-5.9 for hybrid regime, and lower than 4 for authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 2020, 23 out of 167 countries, home to 8.4% of the global population, were considered full democracies. Meanwhile, 41% or 52 countries were flawed democracies, 15% or 35 countries were hybrid regimes, and 35.6% or 57 countries were categorized as authoritarian regimes. More than one third of the world\u2019s population lives in an authoritarian regime, of which most reside in our two neighboring countries. The 2020 report showed changes such as the US\u2019s index declining, while in Asia, Japan\u2019s, South Korea\u2019s and Taiwan\u2019s moving up to the \u201cfull democracy\u201d category. France and Portugal descended into flawed democracies while Hong Kong slipped into the \u201chybrid regime\u201d category along with El Salvador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mongolia is stuck being a flawed democracy, having a score of 6.48, which ranks it 61st out of 167 countries or, 10th in the region. The \u201cflawed democracy\u201d category includes those who have free and fair elections and secure fundamental rights for citizens but lack press freedom, political participation, and political culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illustration 1. Global Democracy Index 2020<\/strong><\/a><\/strong>Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2014-2016, Mongolia had its all-time-high score of 6.62 on the Democracy Index, scoring its highest on the criteria of electoral process, pluralism, and civil liberties. In 2020, the scores on electoral process and pluralism and civil liberties decreased by 0.42 and 1.48, respectively. Meanwhile, the scores on political participation and political culture were improved by 0.56 and 0.63, respectively.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is noteworthy that Mongolia\u2019s democracy score has fallen from 6.60 to 6.48 in the last 15 years, keeping it in this category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index is a comprehensive sum of five indicators: \u201celectoral process and pluralism\u201d, \u201cfunctioning of government\u201d, \u201cpolitical participation\u201d, \u201cpolitical culture\u201d, and \u201ccivil liberties\u201d. But none of these makes sense in the absence of free and fair election or political freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high number of political arrests during the 2020 electoral campaigns were a way to influence the election in a timely manner. Although there are many media outlets and social media is growing rapidly, it is insufficient to refer to free press or the tolerance of pluralism when most of these outlets are controlled by political figures or current and former high-ranking officials. Mongolians are certainly struggling to adopt the culture of tolerance and understanding different opinions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the justice system, the press and the political power concentrated in the hands of wealthy individuals and owners of banks and big companies, corruption is rampant, and many big crimes are still not solved. In light of this, Mongolia\u2019s current position in the index will hardly shift unless there is a surge in the political participation of the citizens.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021.02.19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trans. by Riya.T and Munkh-Erdene.D<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a democracy, political decisions are made considering the majority\u2019s will. That does not mean those decisions are always democratic. The majority\u2019s will also has to ensure the rights of individuals and minorities to be democratic in essence. Therefore, implementing democratic decisions is intrinsically the duty of the government. Right here, we can observe the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[268],"class_list":{"0":"post-13046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-article-2"},"authors":[{"term_id":268,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"haluinaamgmail-com","display_name":"Jargal Defacto","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/JD2-scaled.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/JD2-scaled.jpg"},"author_category":"","first_name":"Jargal","last_name":"Defacto","user_url":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14069,"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13046\/revisions\/14069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13046"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jargaldefacto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=13046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}