What is the state of democracy?
#2
“The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself—always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested in adversity.”
—Jimmy Carter
Dear Friends of Democracy,
Every therapy starts with a diagnosis. So when you ask yourself how to save democracy, you first should ask, is democracy in need of saving? Here are some facts.
According to the Economist Democracy Index, there are only 24 full democracies in the world, which is only 14 per cent of all countries and 8 per cent of the world population.
What does "full democracy" mean?
Full democracies are nations where civil liberties and fundamental political freedoms are not only respected but also reinforced by a political culture conducive to the thriving of democratic principles. These nations have a valid system of governmental checks and balances, an independent judiciary whose decisions are enforced, governments that function adequately, and diverse and independent media. Plus, these nations have only limited problems in democratic functioning.
What other categories are there?
Flawed democracies (48 countries),
Hybrid regimes (36),
Authoritarian regimes (59).
Check this chart👇
Which are the most democratic countries?
Norway, followed by New Zealand and Iceland (check for your country here).
And has the situation gotten better or worse?
On average, it is currently stagnating. But the following is said in the Economist Democracy Index 2022 report:
"The picture of stagnation in the state of global democracy hides darker developments. Strikingly, the situation in two countries that are home to more than 20 per cent of the world's population, China and Russia, took a decisive turn for the worse in 2022. Russia recorded the biggest decline in score of any country in the world in 2022. Its invasion of Ukraine was accompanied by all-out repression and censorship at home. Russia has been on a trajectory away from democracy for a long time and is now acquiring many of the features of a dictatorship."
Who compiles the Economist Democracy Index?
The Economist Intelligence Unit of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company that publishes the weekly newspaper The Economist.
Is it the only democracy index?
There are other democracy indices, such as the V-Dem Democracy indices or the Bertelsmann Transformation Index. The tendencies of democracy are similar in these other indices.
How do you actually measure democracy?
There is no consensus on how to measure democracy. The Democracy Index from The Economist produces a weighted average based on the answers to 60 questions, with most answers being experts' assessments and some answers provided by public opinion surveys from the respective countries. The questions are grouped into five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation, and political culture.
So what does the democracy diagnosis look like?
Pretty depressing, I would say. Or, to put it a more optimistic way: a lot can change for the better in the future.
See you,
Johannes Eber