(01-02-2020, 03:52 PM)Last42min Wrote:

(01-02-2020, 11:45 AM)mikesez Wrote: "How much power they have" is theoretically infinite in each possible government.

Things like a bill of rights are just pieces of paper if the judges won't enforce them, if the police ignore them, if the people have no means to organize outside the government, etc.

I wouldn't try to score individual politicians on this axis.  This axis is about the nature of the entire government.

Points for frequent, free and fair elections
Points for freedom of speech, assembly, and religion
Points for freedom of association
Points for freedom to have your own weapons
Points for independent judges who can overrule the executive and the lawmakers
Points for independent prosecutors who can overrule the executive and the lawmakers
Points for not letting the executive create law
Points for not letting judges create law
Points for letting different parts of the government sue each other
Points for letting the people sue their government
Points for local control of police forces

Each of these things are obstacles for any would-be dictator.  The US gets a nearly perfect score.  Our elections are not totally fair due to closed primaries, and gerrymandering, and we only rarely have independent prosecutors.  So that would be the axis that defines a country as a whole.

Then I'd grade individual politicians on two axes.  "If the government does everything this guy wants, how much choice would individuals still have in daily life?" and "If the government does everything this guy wants, what % of GDP would be government spending?"

How would you ever be able to compare different types of governments using this metric?

Give them points for each feature they have that's an obstacle for a would-be dictator.
If some of the questions are too specific to the USA, they could be tweaked.  If other countries have obstacles that I haven't thought of, include those too.
It would be a lot of work, but at the end you would have an interesting list to show people in different countries how their government could be improved.

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