Re North Carolina is no longer classified as a democracy

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Charles Jackson <clj () jacksons net>
> Date: January 2, 2018 at 2:52:28 PM EST
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Re: [IP] North Carolina is no longer classified as a democracy
>
> North Carolina not a democracy.  Perhaps.  But, EIP not a solid academic enterprise.  Maybe so.  
>
> But see that bastion of right-wing analysis Slate for an alternate view:
>
> http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/01/the_bogus_claim_that_north_carolina_is_no_longer_a_democracy.html
>
> ​The subhead reads:
> No, North Korea isn’t more democratic than the Tar Heel State.
>
> ​See also:
>     
> http://andrewgelman.com/2017/09/08/much-backscratching-happy-talk-junk-science-gets-share-reputation-respected-universities/
> and
> ​
> http://andrewgelman.com/2017/01/02/about-that-bogus-claim-that-north-carolina-is-no-longer-a-democracy/
>
> ​Chuck​
>
> ​
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 12:03 PM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> > > Date: January 2, 2018 at 11:53:14 AM EST
> > > To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> > > Subject: [Dewayne-Net] North Carolina is no longer classified as a democracy
> > > Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
> > >
> > > North Carolina is no longer classified as a democracy
> > > By ANDREW REYNOLDS
> > > Dec 31 2017
> > > <http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article122593759.html>
> > >
> > > In 2005, in the midst of a career of traveling around the world to help set up elections in some of the most 
> > > challenging places on earth – Afghanistan, Burma, Egypt, Lebanon, South Africa, Sudan and Yemen, among others – my 
> > > Danish colleague, Jorgen Elklit, and I designed the first comprehensive method for evaluating the quality of 
> > > elections around the world. Our system measured 50 moving parts of an election process and covered everything from 
> > > the legal framework to the polling day and counting of ballots.
> > >
> > > In 2012 Elklit and I worked with Pippa Norris of Harvard University, who used the system as the cornerstone of the 
> > > Electoral Integrity Project. Since then the EIP has measured 213 elections in 153 countries and is widely agreed to 
> > > be the most accurate method for evaluating how free and fair and democratic elections are across time and place.
> > >
> > > When we evolved the project I could never imagine that as we enter 2017, my state, North Carolina, would perform so 
> > > badly on this, and other, measures that we are no longer considered to be a fully functioning democracy.
> > >
> > > In the just released EIP report, North Carolina’s overall electoral integrity score of 58/100 for the 2016 election 
> > > places us alongside authoritarian states and pseudo-democracies like Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. If it were a 
> > > nation state, North Carolina would rank right in the middle of the global league table – a deeply flawed, partly 
> > > free democracy that is only slightly ahead of the failed democracies that constitute much of the developing world.
> > >
> > > Indeed, North Carolina does so poorly on the measures of legal framework and voter registration, that on those 
> > > indicators we rank alongside Iran and Venezuela. When it comes to the integrity of the voting district boundaries 
> > > no country has ever received as low a score as the 7/100 North Carolina received. North Carolina is not only the 
> > > worst state in the USA for unfair districting but the worst entity in the world ever analyzed by the Electoral 
> > > Integrity Project.
> > >
> > > That North Carolina can no longer call its elections democratic is shocking enough, but our democratic decline goes 
> > > beyond what happens at election time. The most respected measures of democracy — Freedom House, POLITY and the 
> > > Varieties of Democracy project — all assess the degree to which the exercise of power depends on the will of the 
> > > people: That is, governance is not arbitrary, it follows established rules and is based on popular legitimacy.
> > >
> > > The extent to which North Carolina now breaches these principles means our state government can no longer be 
> > > classified as a full democracy.
> > >
> > > First, legislative power does not depend on the votes of the people. One party wins just half the votes but 100 
> > > percent of the power. The GOP has a huge legislative majority giving it absolute veto-proof control with that tiny 
> > > advantage in the popular vote. The other party wins just a handful of votes less and 0 percent of the legislative 
> > > power. This is above and beyond the way in which state legislators are detached from democratic accountability as a 
> > > result of the rigged district boundaries. They are beholden to their party bosses, not the voters. Seventy-six of 
> > > the 170 (45 percent) incumbent state legislators were not even opposed by the other party in the general election.
> > >
> > > Second, democracies do not limit their citizens’ rights on the basis of their born identities. However, this is 
> > > exactly what the North Carolina legislature did through House Bill 2 (there are an estimated 38,000 transgender Tar 
> > > Heels), targeted attempts to reduce African-American and Latino access to the vote and pernicious laws to constrain 
> > > the ability of women to act as autonomous citizens.
> > >
> > > [snip]
> > >
> > > Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> > > Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp
> >
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>
>
> -- 
> Chuck 
>
> ======================
> Charles L. Jackson
>
> 301 656 8716    desk phone
> 301 775 1023    mobile 
>
> PO Box 221
> Port Tobacco, MD 20677



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