Now only 19 full democracies left in the Democracy Index for 2016. The US has been downgraded.
Five of the 19 have Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Not a bad effort. Scandinavians clean up the medal positions, as usual.
But the big winner is parliamentary democracy. The executive presidency model seems to create flawed democracies. I think I am right in saying that 18 of the 19 surviving full democracies slot the government into the structure at the bottom level of the legislature, equivalent to the US House of Representatives. Whereas only one of the full democracies is presidential (Uruguay, in 19th, of which I know approximately nothing).
The US Constitution is the problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index