India is a "Flawed Democracy"

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2008 Democracy index has ranked India at 35 position and put it under the “Flawed Democracies”.  In this list which was divided into “Full Democracies”, “Flawed Democracies”, “Hybrid Regimes” and “Authoritarian Regimes” covered a total of 167 countries.  The Flawed democracies and Authoritarian Regimes lead the tally with 29.9% and 30.5% countries representing.

Sweden. Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Denmark and Finland were the top 6 – thus making it an all-Nordic club.  US is #18 in the “Full Democracy” category.  Canada is #11!.  Heck, even Mauritius is #26 and a “Full Democracy”!!

Now, I can understand that since this list was drawn in Britain, there is a certain Western bias, but India’s democracy is flawed, in my view because of it having TOO MUCH democracy!  Every one and his brother can simply get up and start a party and a clear majority is almost impossible.

In any case, India is behind South Africa, Chile, Taiwan and Cape Verde (I didn’t know there was a country by this name!).  From our neighbors, Sri Lanka is #57, China (Authoritarian Regime) is #136, Pakistan made it to a “Hybrid Regime” from Authoritarian Regime on the back of the ONE election last year is at #108.

What do you say about this list?