A document called the Democracy Index is issued every year by the Economic Intelligence Unit. It looks at electoral process, functioning of government, how far citizens participate in the process and other matters such as civil liberties. According to this, the world's most democratic country in 2011 was Norway, a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Overall Norway scores 9.8 points out of a possible 10, with civil liberties and political participation scoring full marks.

All the top four countries were Nordic ones, with Iceland, Denmark and Sweden next. In fifth place is New Zealand followed by Australia, and after that comes Switzerland, which stands out for its system of having a referendum whenever anything important needs to be decided. The Uk and US are much lower at 18 and 19 respectively, and the least democratic country in the world is North Korea.
Norway also scores highest on the human development index, which looks at points like education, income equality and life expectancy.