Which country is the most democratic these days? Well, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, recently updated on the fascinating rankings page, it's not any of the Anglofritz favoured nations -- damn, we didn't even make Top 10 -- but none other than the Scandinavian land of social economics, meatballs and sleek furniture: Sweden. The whole report, as part of the magazine's special January edition, The World in 2007, can be downloaded here as an 11-page pdf. The democracy index calculates a score between 0 and 10 compiled from five categorical metrics: electoral process/pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties. Sweden, apparently the paragon of democratic virtue, scores full 10s on all but the fourth metric, where it gets a respectable 9.38.

America, the big democracy-pusher on the block, hawking its wares with global ambitions and equally global abandon, comes in suprisingly (or not so much if you're, say, Noam Chomsky) at number 17, under Spain and above the Czech Republic. Functioning of government and political participation were the killers there with both scores in the 7s. Germany fares better at number 13; UK worse at 23 (ouch, 5.00 for political participation).

The Amis outscore the Germans, however, in the Quality of Life rankings (13). And the Global Peace Index? Fuggedabouit. The US falls into the lower half of the 121 nations at 96, nestled snugly between Yemen and Iran. Germany ranks at an honorable 12, with the rest of the mostly western European countries. C'est la vie.