Research

As part of the overall General Indicator included in the Inclusiveness Index 2019 are the indicators of the Gini Index and an Index on Political Rights. The Gini Index is a measurement of income inequality that compares the existing distribution of income to an equal distribution on a scale of 0 to 100. A value of 0 means absolute equality of income while a value of 100 means signifies absolute inequality. Income inequality is a revealing indicator of group-based marginality, as it does not depend on the wealth of the nation, but how the country distributes resources to its people. Meanwhile, the Political Rights Index measures access to political rights on a scale of 0 to 40, with 0 meaning no political rights and 40 indicating full access to political rights. The visualizations below will show the results of these two indexes in 2019 as well as the relationship between them.

Analysis

In the map showing the distribution of the Gini Index across the world in 2019, South Africa scored the highest with an Index of 63, possibly a relic of apartheid regime. Similarly, several countries from the former Soviet Union had the lowest Gini Indexes, including Ukraine, Belarus, and Slovenia, potentially as a result of decades of communist rule. Unsurprisingly, the United States scored relatively highly in the Gini Index with a score of 41.50. When analyzing the results of the political rights index in 2019, we can see clearly that many countries across the globe do not provide citizens with access to political rights. China actually received an Index of 0 given its citizen’s lack of access to political rights under the current regime. Whereas 26 countries that had enough data to calculate an Index received a score of 0, there were 10 countries that earned a Political Rights Index of 40, signifying full access to political rights, including Canada, Australia, Uruguay, and New Zealand. Looking at the relationship between these two indexes, Slovenia has one of the lowest Gini Indexes and one of the lowest Political Rights Indexes, indicating it is the most politically and economically inclusive countries in our analysis. Meanwhile, the Central African Republic has the one of the lowest Political Rights Indexes as well as one of the highest Gini Indexes.