The data is coming from the world's largest democracy perception study, published by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation (a Danish-based non-profit organisation).
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
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Yes, I already told you that you can add or subtract variables, but the underlying metrics are valid nonetheless as the metrics themselves. "Do you approve of your government? Yes, or no?" Is a question that you can ask in many different countries, and collect data on. The numbers are not "invalid" because you disagree with the implications.
As for the Economist, it's measuring freedom for capital to flow, not democracy. The Economist is a bourgeois liberal rag so old and consistent that Lenin described it accurately a century ago as a "journal that speaks for British millionaires." Some things don't change.
Again, what are you hoping to gain, here?
Exactly, you can't trust such a survey, no matter the source.
You can absolutely trust a survey. If I go and ask someone if they want fewer trees, more trees, or the same number, whatever they answer is factually what they answer.
So you can trust the economist's too. Also "wanting more trees" is something you can measure, it is not a feeling. Asking them if there are enough trees in their city and comparing them with another, unrelated sample taken from a different place instead is throwing numbers around and doesn't tell you which city has enough trees.
"Wanting" is by definition a feeling. You can measure responses, the act of answering one way or another is a material process. I can trust that the numbers used by "The Economist" are probably accurate, just like I can look in and they use parameters like "freedom for Capital movement" as an indicator of democracy, ie they define democracy as Capitalism.