“Democracy appeals to a large part of the moral world, yet indices that decide its presence and work are considered to lack credibility due to opaque models and reliance on an elite cohort of individuals to offer opinions instead of data or algorithms.

Over the years, democracy has come to mean many things, often abstract and distorted, especially used to invoke a necessary “value” of the global order. Such a “value” has depended upon a few aspects: economic and military hard power and alignment with Western interests.

As India finally announced its democracy rankings, nations that depend on using inaccurate “expert opinions” to subvert data raised a hue and cry. Domestically, there is a cohort that disagrees with the idea of such rankings and argues one of two ideas…..”

Read the full article at Firstpost.com