Comparative Study between Democracy and Autocracy Based on Social Indicators

Abstract

Democracy and autocracy are measured by democracy index which is introduced by Economist Intelligence Unit and has been calculated since 2006 for 167 countries covering almost the entire population of the world. The Democracy index is based on five factors: Electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. These 167 countries are divided into one of four categories: Full democracy; flawed democracy; hybrid regime; and authoritarian regime or autocracy. This paper deals with comparative study between full democracy and autocracy based on different social indicators such as literacy rate, unemployment rate, per capita GDP, birth rate, death rate, fertility rate, divorce rate, murder rate etc. It is observed that per capita GDP and literacy rate of full democratic countries are significantly higher than that of autocratic countries. Unemployment rate, murder rate, fertility rate and crude birth rate of full democratic countries are significantly lower than that of autocratic countries. No significant difference was observed for crude death rate and divorce rate between democratic and autocratic countries.