57. Is Democracy Dying?: Freedom House 2021 Report (English Vocabulary Lesson)

Is democracy dying? According to a recently released report, the answer might be ‘yes.’ Freedom House’s democracy rankings for 2020 were released last week, and the findings were shocking! In this episode we’ll talk about their conclusions, how Freedom House is able to assess democracy, and discuss why democracy might be struggling! TRANSCRIPT - https://thinkinginenglish.blog/2021/03/08/57-is-democracy-dying-freedom-house-2021-report-english-vocabulary-lesson/ 2021 Freedom in the World Report - https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2021/democracy-under-siege What is Democracy? - http://thinkinginenglish.blog/2020/11/08/18-what-is-democracy-english-vocabulary-lesson/ CONTACT US!! INSTAGRAM - thinkinginenglishpodcast (https://www.instagram.com/thinkinginenglishpodcast/) Twitter - @thinkenglishpod Blog - thinkinginenglish.blog Gmail - [email protected] Vocabulary List To collapse (v) - to suddenly fail, be unable to continue or work correctly The Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s Unprecedented (adj) - never having happened or existed in the past Unemployment has reached an unprecedented level Reliable (adj) - someone or something that is reliable can be trusted or believed because he, she or it works or behaves well in the way expected Is your watch reliable? Or is it a little slow? Unstable  (adj) - not solid and firm and therefore not strong, safe, or likely to last That chair looks really unstable! Deterioration (n) - the fact or process of becoming worse We’ve seen a deterioration in relations between the countries Secretive  (adj) - people or organisation who are secretive hide their feelings, thoughts, intentions and actions from other people He’s being very secretive about his new girlfriend Surveillance (n) - the careful watching of a person or place, especially by the police or army, because of a crime that has happened or is expected to happen More banks are now installing surveillance cameras To enforce (v) - to make people obey a law It isn’t always easy for the police to enforce speed limits Bribery (n) - an attempt to make someone do something for you by giving the person money, presents, or something else that they wanted Some cultures consider tipping waiters bribery, while in others it’s considered an insult if you don’t leave a tip --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-english/support