Nation Responds to Record-Low Democracy Score by Forming Commission to Grade the Report Grading It
Officials say the panel's first initiative is an annual assessment of the assessment, with no further deliverables currently planned.
Following news that the country had reached its lowest measured standing in a decades-long survey of democratic health, lawmakers moved quickly to establish a new oversight body dedicated entirely to reviewing the survey that produced the finding.
The commission, according to internal planning documents, will not weigh in on the democratic health of the country itself. Its charter limits its scope strictly to evaluating the methodology, tone, and footnote formatting of the original report, with a subcommittee reserved for reviewing the commission's own review once it is complete.
"We felt it was important to have a rigorous, independent process for determining how rigorous and independent the other process was," said a spokesperson for the commission, who then adjourned the briefing early to attend a preliminary meeting about scheduling the commission's first meeting.
Early drafts of the commission's forthcoming report reportedly include a section grading the original report's use of adjectives, a chart comparing chart styles, and a recommendation that a future commission be convened to assess whether this commission's assessment was itself assessed fairly.
Asked when the public might expect concrete action on the underlying democratic concerns, officials said that question fell outside the commission's mandate, but noted it could potentially be referred to a future commission established for that purpose.