The Arab Republic and Socialist Democratic Commonwealth Kingdom of United Islamic Principality of Federated Islands

August 14, 2007 10:50 AM

The Arab Republic and Socialist Democratic Commonwealth Kingdom of United Islamic Principalities and Federated Islands. Brendon O'Connor analyzes the names of countries in relation to their Freedom House political rights score.
posted by Falconetti (15 comments total)

I think I was looking at that graph for about 3 minutes before I realized that "less democratic" was on the right. Snark about Republicans aside, that's kind of poor design. Rightward motion is usually indicative of increase or a positive movement.

Also, I'd like to see how both variables graph against length of time the name has been in use.
posted by DU at 11:10 AM on August 14, 2007

Isn't the United States a federal republic? I have this book of important founding papers which has on the front page the title "Founding Documents of the Federal Republic of the United States of America"
posted by parmanparman at 11:25 AM on August 14, 2007

I'm reminded of Idi Amin, also known as His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular and Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, which has been translated as "the all-powerful warrior who, by his endurance and will to win, goes from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake."
posted by gsteff at 12:02 PM on August 14, 2007

DU: I believe Freedom House administers scores in that fashion (1 being most democratic, 7 being least democratic). It's backwards to be sure. Many people recode it when discussing it for the reason you've indicated.
posted by proj at 12:02 PM on August 14, 2007

Isn't the United States a federal republic?

It is, but "Federal Republic" isn't part of the country's name.

I have this book of important founding papers which has on the front page the title "Founding Documents of the Federal Republic of the United States of America"

That may be, but I'd bet dollars to donuts "Federal Republic of the United States of America" doesn't appear on any of the documents themselves.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:22 PM on August 14, 2007

I see a parallel between the names given to countries and whether their flags have simple or complex designs. In both cases, the countries that have been plagued with dictatorship, civil war, or state failure seem to have overly complex country names and flag designs. By contrast, the more stable, unified, democratic countries tend to have less elaborate names or flag designs (e.g, Japan, Canada, Switzerland). (I'm not claiming a strict correlation, but this is a general tendency I'm noticing.) The sociologist Karen Cerulo developed this argument much further than I have in the book, Identity Designs: The Sights and Sounds of a Nation. Generally speaking, if the citizens of a nation have strong bonds of solidarity between them, it isn't difficult to find a conceptually simple symbol to unite them. But if the citizens of a nation are disunified, distrustful, and paranoid (as is the case in a lot of unfree countries), then the symbols of the nation tend to be overly elaborate and "busy" in a futile attempt to find a symbol that simultaneously pleases a bunch of people who can't be expected to agree on anything.
posted by jonp72 at 12:44 PM on August 14, 2007

it's so expected that countries with Democratic in their name are less democratic than others...if you have to label it so clearly, you're overcompensating, i find.

Country adjectives are so limited...we need more things like Conclaves, Consortiums, Leagues, Citystates, Federations, etc...
posted by amberglow at 1:02 PM on August 14, 2007

and it's true (from the comments there) that Republic is really meaningless. Most of them are, actually.
posted by amberglow at 1:03 PM on August 14, 2007

This says to me that if your country has to brag about how democratic, socialist, or "people's" it is in the name, then it's not. (Compare to European countries that are socialist and free but don't put it in the name.)

I didn't see much meaning on the other side though, "Commonwealth" being a remnant of the British Empire and "Principality" a holdover from being a tiny European state - so it's the freedom-loving effects of being a British colony or tiny European state showing through there, not so much the name.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 1:41 PM on August 14, 2007

I think it's a little presumptuous for the United States to have a score of 1. We're not Sweden when it comes to political rights.
posted by hodyoaten at 2:19 PM on August 14, 2007

don't they score representative democracy/voting for all offices higher than countries where the party picks the representatives?
posted by amberglow at 2:22 PM on August 14, 2007

So, how democratic is the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" compared to, oh, "Japan"?
posted by jfuller at 4:35 PM on August 14, 2007

Democratic isb't soo bad really, about like Singapore. Arab, people, socialist, islamic, are all much worse.

Maybe you only remind people about your democracy if isn't very good, but only a few like North Korea just flout the meaning. People's & socialist are much more flexible choices. So the "if you need to say it, it ain't true applies most to these."

Arab describes a geographic area where little freedom exists, but chosing it suggests your leader's abuse ethnic issues. Islamic & likely christian have similar issues.

I'd like to also see "christian" and "of" as well as rankings by word count, and more "without X" columns.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:38 AM on August 15, 2007

I'd like to also see "christian" and "of" as well as rankings by word count, and more "without X" columns.

"Christian" isn't part of the formal name of any country, at least if the Wikipedia list is accurate.

All the other "without X" besides the ones shown here are such large groups that their average will be pretty close to the overall average. In any case, given the average and total number for "with X," and the overall average and number of countries included (3.3 and 194, respectively), you can calculate the "without X" average as ((overall average * total countries) - ("with X" average * "with X" countries))/(total countries - "with X" countries). For example, the "without democ*" average would be ((3.3 * 194) - (4.9 * 8))/(194 - 8) = 3.2.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:02 PM on August 15, 2007

jonp72 writes "if the citizens of a nation are disunified, distrustful, and paranoid (as is the case in a lot of unfree countries), then the symbols of the nation tend to be overly elaborate and 'busy' in a futile attempt to find a symbol that simultaneously pleases a bunch of people who can't be expected to agree on anything."

Like Canada's Finalist C monstrosity. Ai caramba what a travesty that would have been.
posted by Mitheral at 8:40 PM on September 10, 2007