Tag Archives: Ireland

The Quality of Democracy by Country

democracy ranking worldmap 2012Global Democracy Ranking released the Democracy Ranking for the year 2012, which shows the quality of democracy around the world.

Several indicators were used to calculate the Global Democracy Ranking. Those indicators were selected from a vast variety of dimensions such as politics, economy, environment, gender equality, education, health, and knowledge.

As seen in the map above, countries ranked at the top (dark green), those with the highest quality of democracy include Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, Ireland, and Austria. In contrast, we find countries where democracy is at serious risk or where it is no longer a viable system (brown). Among these countries we have Yemen, Syria, Libya, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, China, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, and Haiti.

Source: Global Democracy Ranking: Democracy Ranking 2012

 

Pope Benedict XVI is on Twitter

click to enlarge

Pope Benedict XVI has Twitter presence beginning December, 2012. His English language account @Pontifex already has 1,342,380 followers from all around the world, and has sent 14 tweets. The Floating Sheep blog mapped followers of this account based on their location as of December 8, 2012. According to this map, the largest number of followers were located in Italy and Nicaragua, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Spain and Ireland among others.

 

Interesting Links of the Day – July 12, 2012

  1. Spain Targets First Cash From Renewables With Energy Tax – Marc Roca (Bloomberg)
  2. Spain to follow Ireland’s footsteps – Fiona Maharg-Bravo and Neil Unmack (The Globe and Mail)
  3. Brent crude steady above $100 as Fed holds off stimulus – Florence Tan (Reuters)
  4. Energy Independence in an Interdependent World – Joseph S. Nye (Project Syndicate)