Where is the UK ranked in the international Privacy, Democracy and Corruption Indices ?
We have taken the Privacy International / EPIC surveillance societies- ranked by Least Surveilled Countries, which concentrates on the European Union and other major economies.
There is also a comprehensive report from which these Surveillance Society scores and rankings have been derived
We thought it would be interesting to compare the countries on this list, with their scores and rankings produced by two other groups, according to different criteria:
Economist Intelligence Unit - Democracy Index (.pdf) - ranked by most Democratic country..
and also the
Tranparency International - Corruption Perception Index - ranked by lowest Corruption Perception.
Each of these Indices ranks countries by an aggregate score, which in turn depends of the scores of opinions by experts, across half a dozen or more different variables.
Obviously the accuracy of any individual score is open to interpretation, but this approach does produce ranking lists of countries, which can be used to see if the United Kingdom really is sliding into a Police Surveillance State, etc.
You can read the background detail to these Indices by following the hyperlink URLs.
Why is the United Kingdom not equal first across all three indices ?
See the table below, or if your screen and/or browser settings, make this hard to read, open this link to display the table in a new window.
| Privacy International / EPIC surveillance societiey - ranked by Least Surveilled Countries | Economist Intelligence Unit - Democracy Index (.pdf) - ranked by most Democratic | Tranparency International - Corruption Perception Index - ranked by lowest Corruption Perception | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Score | Rank | Score | Rank | Score | |||
| Consistently Upholds Human Rights Standards | ||||||||
| Significant Protections And Safeguards | ||||||||
| Germany | 1 | 3.9 | 13 | 8.82 | 16 | 8.0 | ||
| Canada | 2 | 3.6 | 9 | 9.07 | 14 | 8.5 | ||
| Adequate Safeguards Against Abuse | ||||||||
| Belgium | 3= | 3.2 | 20= | 8.15 | 20= | 7.3 | ||
| Austria | 3= | 3.2 | 14 | 8.69 | 11= | 8.6 | ||
| Greece | 5 | 3.1 | 22 | 8.13 | 54 | 4.4 | ||
| Some Safeguards But Weakened Protections | ||||||||
| Hungary | 6= | 3 | 38 | 7.53 | 41 | 5.2 | ||
| Argentina | 6= | 3 | 54 | 6.63 | 93= | 2.9 | ||
| Portugal | 8 | 2.9 | 19 | 8.16 | 26= | 6.6 | ||
| Poland | 8= | 2.9 | 46 | 7.3 | 61= | 3.7 | ||
| France | 8= | 2.9 | 24 | 8.07 | 18= | 7.4 | ||
| Cyprus | 8= | 2.9 | 36= | 7.6 | 37= | 5.6 | ||
| Finland | 12 | 2.7 | 6 | 9.25 | 1= | 9.6 | ||
| Malta | 13= | 2.6 | 15 | 8.39 | 26= | 6.4 | ||
| Luxembourg | 13= | 2.6 | 7 | 9.1 | 8= | 8.6 | ||
| Latvia | 13= | 2.6 | 43 | 7.37 | 49= | 4.7 | ||
| Italy | 13= | 2.6 | 34 | 7.73 | 45 | 4.9 | ||
| Estonia | 13= | 2.6 | 33 | 7.74 | 24= | 6.7 | ||
| Systemic Failure To Uphold Safeguards | ||||||||
| Slovakia | 18= | 2.5 | 41 | 7.4 | 49= | 4.7 | ||
| New Zealand | 18= | 2.5 | 11= | 9.01 | 1= | 9.6 | ||
| Lithuania | 18= | 2.5 | 39= | 7.43 | 46= | 4.8 | ||
| Ireland | 18= | 2.5 | 11= | 9.01 | 18= | 7.4 | ||
| Denmark | 18= | 2.5 | 5 | 9.52 | ||||
| Czech Republic | 18= | 2.5 | 18 | 8.17 | 46= | 4.8 | ||
| Spain | 24= | 2.4 | 16 | 8.34 | 23 | 6.8 | ||
| Australia | 24= | 2.4 | 8 | 9.09 | 9= | 8.7 | ||
| Slovenia | 26= | 2.3 | 27= | 7.96 | 26= | 6.4 | ||
| Netherlands | 26= | 2.3 | 3 | 9.66 | 9= | 8.7 | ||
| Sweden | 28= | 2.2 | 1 | 9.88 | 6 | 9.2 | ||
| Israel | 28= | 2.2 | 47 | 7.28 | 34= | 5.9 | ||
| Extensive Surveillance Societies | ||||||||
| United States of America | 30 | 2 | 17 | 8.22 | 20= | 7.3 | ||
| Endemic Surveillance Societes | ||||||||
| Thailand | 31= | 1.9 | 90 | 5.67 | 63= | 3.6 | ||
| Philippines | 31= | 1.9 | 63= | 6.48 | 121= | 2.5 | ||
| United Kingdom | 33 | 1.5 | 23 | 8.08 | 13 | 8.6 | ||
| Singapore | 34= | 1.4 | 84 | 5.89 | 5 | 9.4 | ||
| Russia | 34= | 1.4 | 102 | 5.02 | 121= | 2.5 | ||
| Malaysia | 36= | 1.3 | 81= | 5.98 | 44 | 5.0 | ||
| China | 36= | 1.3 | 138 | 2.97 | 70= | 3.3 | ||
| Rank | Score | Rank | Score | Rank | Score | |||
| Privacy International / EPIC surveillance societiey - ranked by Least Surveilled Countries | Economist Intelligence Unit - Democracy Index (.pdf) - ranked by most Democratic | Tranparency International - Corruption Perception Index - ranked by lowest Corruption Perception | ||||||
UPDATE:
Hopefully Privacy International will get the funding to extend their Surveillance Society rankings to all the entire list of top 50 list countries by population, which the other two indices mentioned above do give scores and rankings to..
India is projected to soon be the world's most populous country ahead of China.
More people live in each of Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh than now live in Russia. More people live in Vietnam than in Germany. More people are estimated to live in each of Turkey, Iran or the Democratic republic of the Congo, than do in either the United Kingdom, France or Italy.
The number of people living under the yoke of surveillance societies, with authoritarian, non-democratic and corrupt governments and societies, looks set to increase
Comments
So the only thing the UK can offer me right now is a "lowered perception of corruption" .... no wonder I live in Spain
Although the recent corruption cases in Marbella sound juicy enough to make your hair curl - they are becoming kind of routine here where the property boom has led to all kinds of dodgy goings on ...
Posted by: drk | November 26, 2006 4:28 PM
@ drk - the London 2012 Olympics spiralling multi-billion pound construction and "security theatre" costs look set to be ripe for legal, and illegal exploitation at the taxpayers', particularly the London taxpayers', expense.
The Privacy International ranking list does not yet include major countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, which the other two indices do.
Posted by: wtwu | November 26, 2006 6:14 PM
The sooner Scotland gets independence from England, the better. The UK as a whole is going to the dogs, and you English are doing nothing about it. As long as you have your 42 inch plasma TV and your Big Brother every season, nothing else matters. Well done folks.
Posted by: Scott Tunstall | November 27, 2006 12:21 AM
@ Scott - where do you stand on the West Lothian Question ? Would you be willing to take back the Scottish Raj - politicians like Tony Blair, Gordon Brown , John Reid, Alistair Darling, Des Browne, Douglas Alexander, Jim Murphy etc. and confine their inept, repressive policies to government in Edinburgh, rather than Westminster ? Or would that be too high a price to pay for independence ? 8-)
Posted by: wtwu | November 27, 2006 1:18 AM