“Half of the world’s democratic governments are in decline, while authoritarian regimes step up their repression.” In many cases, democracy is no better off than it was in 1990. That is the gloomy conclusion of the International Idea Democracy bureau in its new annual report. The most important questions and answers:
How is ‘democracy’ measured?
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (Idea), based in Stockholm, is an intergovernmental organization that aims to promote democracy worldwide. Switzerland has also been a member of Idea since 2005.
The “Global State of Democracy” report, which is published annually, takes into account different parts of the political systems in the countries. For example, the separation of powers, political participation by the population or “fundamental rights” are evaluated. Indices (quasi “numbers”) for the various subcategories are created from over 100 variables, most of which consist of publicly available data.
What are the main findings?
The Global State of Democracy Report generated indices for 173 countries in 2021. The main conclusion: by the end of 2021, half of the countries surveyed registered a decline in at least one area of democracy. And: Worldwide, the number of countries moving towards authoritarianism is more than double the number of countries moving towards democracy.
erosion of democracies
According to International Idea, there will be 104 democracies in 2021. In almost half, namely 48, of these countries, there was a negative balance of the developments of the past year across all indices. In other words, the bottom line was that the degree of democracy was either “somewhat” or even “significantly” weakened.
In Europe, nearly half of all democracies – 17 countries in all – have suffered erosion over the past five years. According to International Idea, the reasons for this are diverse, ranging from restrictions on freedom of expression to distrust in the legitimacy of elections.
In many democracies there is also what is known as "backsliding", "a more serious and deliberate form of democratic erosion". The most recent data shows seven such countries: Brazil, El Salvador, Hungary and Poland are declining sharply, and India, Mauritius and the United States are experiencing "moderate" such declines. This pattern shows how often elected leaders used their power to weaken democratic institutions from within the system, according to the Global State of Democracy Report.
More authoritarianism
According to the report, authoritarianism is deepening. Between 2016 and 2021, there were more than twice as many countries moving towards authoritarianism as countries moving towards democracy. According to the indices in the annual report on the state of democracy in the world, on balance almost half of all authoritarian regimes have deteriorated. The world also lost two democracies, Myanmar and Tunisia, in 2021, the report said.
The greatest declines within autocracies can be seen in Afghanistan, Belarus, Cambodia, the Comoros and Nicaragua. The sub-characteristics "clean elections" and "effective parliament" are most affected. This indicates that "even maintaining the facade of elections is a struggle," according to the annual report.
Hardly any improvements
Democracy does not seem to evolve in a way that meets rapidly changing needs and priorities. Even in democracies that have a medium or high level of performance, there is little improvement, according to International Idea.
According to the annual report, the total scores for the attributes “representative government”, “fundamental rights” and “government rights and control” have hardly changed since 2001 and remain in “the same average performance range”. "Impartial governance" and "civil society participation" have also remained essentially the same.
Are there also positive developments?
Yes, for example in some African countries:
In countries such as Gambia, Niger and Zambia, the quality of democracy is improving. Sri Lanka and Moldova have also taken positive steps towards more democracy.
The annual report assesses the increasing protests in many authoritarian states – such as China at the moment – as positive.
What about Switzerland?
Switzerland is still one of the most stable democracies in the world. In most indices, Switzerland scores around or above 90 percent.
Only in the sub-area 'voter turnout' does Switzerland perform significantly worse than comparable democratic countries. There it only reaches a value of 0.35 (on a scale between 0 and 1). There are reasons for this: in the last parliamentary elections in 2019, the turnout was 45.1 percent.
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
