Are there any civilised countries outside Western Europe, North America and Australasia ?
I’ve been to a number of countries outside your defined limits, and while many seemed quite peaceful and functional none, except Japan and the Cayman Islands, seem to fit your criteria. I think it’s true, however, that democracy is not necessary for all people, and there are well-functioning countries with other forms of government, Singapore, Qatar, Dubai, Hong Kong until 1997 for example.
I would go along with Chile and Argentina – religion doesn’t play as dominant a role in them as you’d imagine (certainly not Argentina, Chile is now pretty similar to Ireland thanks to recent developments – it’s increasingly becoming less conservative), nor are they as corrupt, I think. There is still a fair bit of poverty (25-35%), but I would definitely class them as ‘civilised’ – they pass all your other criteria, and have very good infrastructure to boot.
