{"id":1477,"date":"2012-01-30T07:28:08","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T07:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2012\/01\/30\/sean-carey-30\/"},"modified":"2019-11-25T14:32:11","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T10:32:11","slug":"sean-carey-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/sean-carey-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Mauritius joins the premier league of global democracies"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sean Carey<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mauritius is in the premier league of the world\u2019s democracies, according to the newly released London-based Economist Intelligence Unit\u2019s Democracy Index. The Index, which monitors 167 nations ranks Mauritius, a small Indian Ocean island, with a population of 1.3 million, 24th out of 25 \u201cfull democracies\u201d, just ahead of Spain.<\/span><\/p>\n

Norway is in first place followed by three other Scandinavian countries\u2014Iceland, Denmark and Sweden. Canada is eighth, Ireland is 12th, Germany is 14th, the UK is 18th, while the US is ranked 19th.The remaining 90 countries which make it into the \u201cdemocratic\u201d category are divided into 53 \u201cflawed democracies,\u201d which includes France and Italy at 29th and 31st respectively. The next category consists of 37 \u201chybrid regimes\u201d and includes Hong Kong (80th), Singapore (81st), Turkey (88th), Tanzania (90th) and Kenya (103rd). The remaining countries in the Index, including Bahrain, Chad, Fiji, Madagascar, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea, are described as \u201cauthoritarian.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Index is based on five criteria: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture. However, it doesn\u2019t take a genius to work out that nearly all of the \u201cfull democracies\u201d belong to a group of the world\u2019s advanced economies, whose populations are well-practiced in placing marks on ballot papers and tossing out unpopular or incompetent governments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Little wonder, then, that Mauritius\u2019s inclusion has caught the eye of some commentators. \u201cIn some ways, of the 25 \u2018full democracies,\u2019 Mauritius is now the most notable,\u201d writes Neil Reynolds, economics correspondent for the Toronto-based Globe and Mail<\/em>. Reynolds cities Mauritius\u2019s endorsement by the World Bank as the best among African economies, and its top position in the Sudanese-born telecoms billionaire Mo Ibrahim\u2019s Index of African Governance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reynolds also goes on to note Mauritius\u2019s ascent in the Index of Economic Freedom jointly produced by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal<\/em>. In 2010, it was in 12th place\u00a0of<\/strong> 179 countries. In 2012 it has<\/strong> moved up to eighth place. The piece finishes with a rousing cry: \u201cEconomic freedom is as much a prerequisite for democracy as voting. Let\u2019s hear it for the prosperous little democracy with a dodo on its coat of arms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But free-marketeers are not the only members of the economic\u00a0tribe to endorse Mauritius. Last year, for example, Joseph Stiglitz, after a brief visit, wrote an article for The Guardian<\/em>, heaping praise on the country for the provision of free education, transport for schoolchildren and free healthcare, including heart surgery. The former chief economist at the World Bank, and a leading light in the neo-Keynesian \u201cthird way\u201d movement, reckoned that North America and Europe could learn lessons from Mauritius in terms of how the country managed \u201csocial cohesion, welfare and economic growth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the brevity of his stay, the Nobel prize-winning economist was observant enough to point to some of the island\u2019s problems, especially the colonial legacy in inequality in ownership of land and other forms of capital which differentially affects the life chances of various segments of the polyethnic population.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there is the vexatious issue of the US base on Diego Garcia, which along with the other 54 Chagos islands, was illegally detached in 1965 before Mauritius\u2019s\u00a0 independence from the UK<\/strong> in 1968 to form the British Indian Ocean Territory. \u201cThe US should now do right by this peaceful and democratic country: recognise Mauritius\u2019s rightful ownership of Diego Garcia, renegotiate the lease and redeem past sins by paying a fair amount for land that it has illegally occupied for decades,\u201d argued Stiglitz. He should have added that those 1500 or so islanders, who were forcibly removed from the Chagos Archipelago in the late 60s and early 70s by the British authorities to make way for the military base and dumped in Mauritius and the Seychelles, should be allowed to return to their homeland if they so wish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Sean Carey is research fellow in the School Social Sciences and visiting lecturer in the Business School, University of Roehampton<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A version of this article has also appeared at anthropologyworks<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 27 January 2012<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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