Decline in democracy index around the world – 2024-02-18 05:59:32

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has published a list of democracy indicators around the world. The report lists 165 independent states and two territories. It shows that the quality of democracy has decreased around the world. The list is topped by Norway, New Zealand and Iceland respectively. At the bottom of the list are North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan.

In this list, various government systems are divided into different categories like ‘full democracy’, ‘flawed democracy’, ‘mixed regime’, ‘authoritarian regime’ etc.

Bangladesh has fallen two steps behind in the democracy index compared to last time. Bangladesh is now ranked 75th among 167 countries and regions in the world.

Among South Asian countries, India and Sri Lanka are in a better position than Bangladesh. India, the world’s largest democracy, ranks 41st in the index. Sri Lanka’s 70th. On the other hand, Bangladesh is followed by Bhutan (81st), Nepal (98th) and Pakistan (118th).

India is placed in the ‘flawed democracy’ category. However, India’s democracy index for ‘prospect for economic development’ improved slightly, the report said. India’s score is 7.18.

On the other hand, although China’s economic development is mentioned in the report, it ranks very low on the democracy index. Their score is 2.12, ranking 148 in the list.

From 2022 to 2023, the number of ‘democratic states’ in the world increased, but the democracy index declined on average. The average in 2022 was 5.29. But in 2023 it has become 5.23. The report claims that the democracy index has declined in the entire world except Western Europe.

Western Europe has overtaken North America in the democracy index. It has been said that the situation in Latin America, the Caribbean Islands, North Africa and West Asia is the most worrying. Countries that have improved their democratic structures include Greece (partial democracy to full democracy), Papua New Guinea and Paraguay (mixed governance to flawed democracy) and Angola (authoritarian to mixed governance).

MSM