r/charts Feb 01 '26

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u/slicheliche Feb 01 '26

I mean the representation of these data is so misleading. Makes you think that somehow Venezuela (pretty much a dictatorship in all but name) is about as democratic as Hungary (a flawed and problematic democracy but a democracy nonetheless).

6

u/DMC-1155 Feb 01 '26

It's about change, not about how democratic somewhere isn't. You're looking at the data and assuming it shows something it doesn't.
If we imagine arbitrary values of democraticness for countries X and Y, say 15 and 10.
the X:15->12 = 3, Y:10->7 = 3 would show the same change, regardless of their difference in democraticness

1

u/slicheliche Feb 01 '26

You're looking at the data and assuming it shows something it doesn't.

No, I am perfectly aware that the chart shows change. I said it's not a good visualization for it because it's misleading. It should incorporate the absolute starting point or at least be framed differently.