Global Democracy at Two-Decade Low
Perhaps longer, but the worst in the history of the Economist Intelligence Unit report.
The Economist (“The global democracy index: how did countries perform in 2024?“):
Around half the world’s population live in places that held elections in 2024. Some 1.65bn ballots were cast across more than 70 countries. But while the number of democratic elections in a single year has never been higher, 2024 also brought big challenges. According to the latest democracy index published by EIU, our sister company, on February 27th, global democracy is in worse shape than at any point in the nearly two-decade history of the index.
Since 2006 EIU has scored 167 countries and territories on a scale of zero to ten based on five criteria: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. The countries are then grouped into four categories: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.
For the 16th consecutive year, Norway was named the most democratic country in the world, with a score of 9.81. New Zealand and Sweden followed. Afghanistan has been the lowest-ranked country since 2021, scoring just 0.25 points. The biggest change came from Bangladesh, which dropped 25 places. Rebuilding democracy there will be an enormous task after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the country’s longtime autocratic ruler. But there is cause for optimism. A temporary technocratic government, led by Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel peace prizewinner, has restored order and stabilised the economy. For those reasons, we named Bangladesh our country of the year in 2024.
[…]
Even Europe—home to nine of the top ten countries in the index—saw some notable declines. France was downgraded from a full democracy to a flawed one. This mostly reflects a deterioration in its confidence-in-government score after president Emmanuel Macron’s snap election in June failed to secure a legislative majority for any single party or bloc. (Four different prime ministers during the course of the year did little to instil confidence either.) Romania was also downgraded after allegations of Russian interference, illegal social-media tactics and campaign-finance violations prompted the constitutional court to annul the presidential election and call for a new vote. In Asia, South Korea dropped out of the full-democracy category after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared—then hastily revoked—martial law, plunging the country into crisis.
America remained a flawed democracy, shifting only slightly from its position in 2023. But it could face bigger problems this year: the first month of President Donald Trump’s second term has already challenged the political independence of the civil service and seen a flurry of executive orders of questionable legal authority.
Mr Trump’s victory in 2024 was part of a broader global backlash against incumbents. The next test for global democracy in 2025 will be how these newly elected leaders choose to govern.
Twenty-five countries, from Norway to Spain, are ranked as Full Democracies. Nine countries (Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, and the Netherlands) have scores 9 or higher (Norway is at 9.81, so all have some room for improvement). France, at 7.99, is the highest ranked Flawed Democracy. The United States, at 7.85, is third–behind Malta and ahead of Chile.
The breakdowns of how each rating was given is not made even in the full report, which requires filling out a form and asking them to send even for subscribers.
They do note this:
Risk of the president seeking retribution, using the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to go after political enemies, which would also erode checks and balances. Civil liberties
of immigrants, migrants, other minorities and protesters also at risk.
Which some might argue as less than democratic.
Trump is basically following the Project 2025 plan and its implementation is heavily influenced by the writings of Yarvin. He suggested the only way to “fix” the US was the institution of an authoritarian govt. We would need a chairman of the Board as POTUS and a CEO to run things with the power make changes as they see fit. They would report to the chairman, the only person to whom they would be accountable. That appears to be how things are playing out. The only reason I think we should still belong in the flawed democracy category instead of something lower is that we have yet to fully see what powers, if any, Congress will retain and if the courts maintain any sense of integrity.
Steve
@steve:
The felon won’t care what the courts say.
I notice this rating seems to have little concern with democracy and much more with “stability.” Ousting an “autocrat” makes you dramatically LESS democratic?
I wonder how concerned they were when the ruling party in the U.S. spent most of the 2024 election trying to throw its primary opponent in prison.
True to pattern, a shitposter with a handle never seen here before shows up to pooh-pooh and belittle concerns about democracy. Also, “Black is White”. And they show up very early after the post is made, so their comment is sure to be seen.
Indeed, as noted, we are on the cusp of falling dramatically in the rankings. Each week, each day, brings fresh horror on that front. They may need to update more frequently to accurately chronicle the descent.
This is an example of one of the problems I have with their methodology:
The failure to secure a legislative majority indicates a public that is not politically unified, not a flaw in France’s democracy or institutions.
Similarly, the countries at the top of the list are all small countries with a high degree of cultural and social homogeneity, which generates a high degree of social and political consensus compared to France or the US.
In other words, the index strongly preferences the characteristics of certain types of countries (no surprise most of the top performers are Nordic countries), not just how well their institutions work or how representative they are.
@TheNoticer:
In fully functional democracies you don’t get a “get out of past criming” pass by running for office (or by being elected to office).
See, for example, South Korea.
@Andy: I think high polarization is not conducive to functioning democracy. That applies to France, and to here. If we review what kinds of things the Internet Research Agency did here in the US, a lot of it falls under “increasing polarization”.
@Andy:
Agreed. Much of what the index measures isn’t “democracy” at all.
@Andy:
Good point, but if the survey measures stability (as the critic/troll* asserted), lack of unity may represent a significant, even critical (see: Truskistan) flaw.
*Take your pick. I thought his initial point had merit enough; YMMV.
@steve: I take your word that this is what Project 2025 says, but this chairman/CEO analogy ignores that, in a properly functioning, widely held company, that chairman/CEO is operating at the direction of a Board that represents the shareholders. A chairman/CEO who does not take his/her policy instruction from the Board is a chairman/CEO with a very short tenure. What Project 25 wants is a chairman/CEO who is the actual primary owner of the business (Trump’s career experience). Neither Trump nor Congress is the owner of the US government. It is an inapt (ridiculous) model for a national government.
@Joe: Depends on the company. A lot of the TechBro companies are run as a little cult of personality — Tesla, Amazon back in the Bezos days*, Facebook, anything Peter Thiel related, etc.
That’s the model that the Unitary Executive Enthusiasts are hoping to replicate.
*: I worked at Amazon twice, mid-Bezos and late-Bezos, and the cult was really installed sometime between those. I think it’s a straight line from those changes to his direct interference with WaPo editorial and attending the Trump inaugural.
Going to have to download that report tomorrow (can’t sign up using home email, for some reason).
I’m intrigued why France counts as “flawed” but Germany is “full”.
Also why Romania is “hybrid regime”?
If its just “confidence in government”, UK polling is not very high on that score.
@Jay L Gischer:
It’s probably the most effective way to attack a democracy — I expect that if we looked, we would find foreign attempts to radicalize the left in this country, similar to the attempts we know of that helped radicalize the right.
As cheap as the Ukraine War has been for the US to decimate the Russian military, I think the Russians have done a much more effective job at hurting the US.
A lot of the damage is done by homegrown lunatics (the John Birch society has been around for a while), but they’ve been mainstreamed, and that’s where you can find the fingerprints of foreign entities.
Not just Russia, either. China wants a weak US more than they want to oppose Russia.
None of this should diminish the massive effect of Elon Musk having a trans daughter, of course. That sent him off the deep end, and also interfered with his effort to select the sex of his children through in vitro techniques. (So many sons, so few daughters…)