Concerns have risen — especially over the past year or so — that some freedoms in the U.S. are becoming restricted or limited to only a portion of the population. On the heels of that feeling comes the latest rankings by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index.

That index puts the U.S. in the “flawed democracy” category, the second out of four levels, the highest being “full democracy.”

With me to explain is Peter Ceretti, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit.