It surely must be one of the eight nations using "Democratic" in their title. Sadly, the word — which embodies a fine tradition and is the basis for human rights — is likely to indicate the opposite.
The blatant doublespeak is appalling.
This language deliberately obscures, distorts or transposes meaning. And it becomes commonplace.
As Orwell put it: "In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible ... Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness ... The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."
We see plenty in today’s politics and advertising. Sometimes it has a touch of subtlety. Sometimes the lies are blatant.
Suckers that we are, we fall for it when it suits our outlook or interests.
Civis will not be surprised if readers can guess the gold medallist. Yes, it’s North Korea, a.k.a. the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Civis uses the Democracy Index, based on the Economist Intelligence Unit. It gives the hermit nation 1.1 out of 10. There are few lower scores.
North Korea in the first week of the games won its first medal, a table tennis silver, in eight years. Its media waited two days before the result was quietly announced. The country’s diving silver was only briefly mentioned.
"Supreme" leader Kim Jong-un has much in common with Orwell’s Big Brother, notably the cult of personality and pervasive surveillance and repression.
The silver goes to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at 1.5, and the bronze to Laos, officially the People’s Democratic Republic of Lao, at 1.8.
The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia comes in fourth at 3.4. Then comes another country parading its supposed "of the people" credentials, the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, with a score of 3.7.
The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is low at 4.6, and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor) reaches a respectable 7.1.
The index has no data for the eighth "democratic" nation, Sao Tome and Principe. A reader test, failed by Civis, is to place it on the map. Information about the small island state indicates its name has some basis.
For context, an outlier at the bottom is Afghanistan (0.3), Norway almost scores a perfect 10 at 9.8 and New Zealand is close at 9.6.
China is 2.1 (note People’s in its official title), having slipped from 3.3 in recent years. Australia is 8.7, Britain 8.3 and the United States 7.8.
*****
New Zealand’s rating could be over-flattering.
Just one example of democratic deficits and dangers is the absence of lobbying laws.
Led by RNZ’s Guyon Espiner and the Democracy Project’s Bryce Edwards, the lack of rules and the undue influence of lobbying have been highlighted this year.
The links between lobbyists and the political parties and the lack of stand-down periods for politicians were a specific democratic weakness, Mr Espiner said.
He found New Zealand was among the weakest regimes in the developed world for regulating lobbying. The industry largely operated in the shadows.
Many key lobbyists were former chiefs of staff or former senior government spin doctors.
More than 75% of developed countries, including Australia, Ireland, France, Canada, America and the UK, have laws requiring "cool off" periods to stop the revolving door between government and lobbying.
The Ministry of Justice put forward just a proposed "voluntary" lobbying code of conduct earlier this year. But by the time the lobbyists themselves had got to work the draft code made dishwater look concentrated.
Transparency International called it so weak as to be almost meaningless.
