“World democracies appear to be unable to prevent the outbreak of wars around the world and also less able to deal with internal conflicts,” states the report released Thursday. Wars in Africa, Europe and the Middle East have caused “immeasurable suffering” and undermined “prospects for positive political change”.
Even the most developed democracies would have difficulty dealing with internal political and social conflicts. In contrast to all other regions of the world, the average value for Western Europe has improved slightly. But the political landscape in America and Europe as a whole has become even more polarized, the study concluded.
Few winners
“In more and more countries, trust in established political parties and their governments is declining.” There are “culture wars” as they have been in the US for a long time, it was said. Only 32 countries managed to improve their index, including many small countries from a moderate level. One of the winners is Greece, which is now considered a full democracy again. Austria also improved. 68 countries deteriorated – in some cases significantly.
Democracy index from the British analysis company Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
It gets worse especially in non-democracies
Developments in non-democracies are mainly responsible for the deterioration of the global average value from 5.29 in the previous year to a minimum of 5.23 points, for example due to the increase in violent conflicts and authoritarian attacks in that country, he said in a statement.
“Authoritarian regimes” have become more entrenched and countries classified as “hybrid regimes” have difficulty democratizing. According to the study, the biggest setbacks occurred in the Sahel and West Africa. This is not surprising given the recent coups d'état in the region. Many countries also deteriorated in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.
Five categories of democracy, four types of countries
The studies evaluate democracy with a total of 60 questions in five categories: electoral processes and pluralism, government functioning, political participation, political culture and civil liberties. From this, an index from zero to ten is calculated, both in individual categories and in the general classification.
Depending on the points achieved, the index predicts four types of states. There are no major defects in full democracies. Only 24 of the 167 countries examined fall into this category; 7.8 percent of the world's population lives in them. As in the previous year, Norway, New Zealand and Iceland took the top spots.
Austria improved slightly
Austria improved from 20th to 18th place this year compared to last year. With 8.28 out of ten possible points, the best result since 2019 was achieved. However, Austria was rated significantly better in the 2000s and 2010s. There is room for improvement, especially in the categories of government functioning and political culture in the country .
Imperfect democracies also have free and fair elections, but there are violations of media freedom, an underdeveloped political culture, and low levels of political participation. The 50 countries in this category include the USA, India, Brazil and also several European countries such as Italy, Portugal and Belgium.
Ukraine is slipping
Countries where there are significant irregularities in elections, for example, are referred to as “hybrid regimes”. Pressure on the opposition is a common feature, as are widespread corruption, a weakened rule of law and a weak civil society. Türkiye, Mexico and also Ukraine are listed here.
Ukraine lost four places. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's concentration of power at the expense of the executive and parliament since the start of the war is criticized, and it is also said: “Corruption continues to be a problem and martial law has been exercised to the extreme”.
With 59 countries, authoritarian regimes are by far the largest group – comprising almost 40 percent of the world's population. Russia is ranked 144th overall. North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan are in last place.