Swiss democracy unexceptional

Switzerland is not the democracy par excellence as thought, but only a mediocre one and ranks fourteenth when compared with twenty-nine established democracies. These are the finding of the democracy barometer, a recently developed instrument for measuring the quality of democracy. According to the democracy barometer, Denmark has the highest quality of democracy, followed by Finland and Belgium. These countries best fulfill the functions of democracy - selected from the areas freedom, equality and control - analyzed by the democracy barometer. The democracy barometer measures nine quality indicators: the protection of personal freedom from infringements by third parties, especially the state; the rule of law; an active citizenship; transparency; participation; representation; political competition; a system of checks and balances; and the ability to implement democratic decisions. The comparison of thirty established democracies between 1995 and 2005 also revealed that the democracies in Poland, South Africa and Costa Rica are the lowest in quality. Marc Bühlmann from the University of Zurich explained why Switzerland only averaged out at a disappointing fourteenth place in the eleven-year study: Switzerland is a model country when it comes to satisfying the criteria of personal liberties, an active citizenship, competition and governmental capability.