According to the latest edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, democracy stopped declining in 2018. “But nor did it register any progress on a global scale.”
Rating 165 independent states and two territories, the Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Based on its scores on a range of indicators within these categories, each country is classified as one of four types of regime: “full democracy”, “flawed democracy”, “hybrid regime” and “authoritarian regime”.
Categorized as a “flawed democracy”, Romania is on the 66th position worldwide and on the last position in the European Union, with a general score of 6.38.
Democracy has declined more in Europe than any other region in the world. In spite of this, Europe still held the top spots in the index. On the first positions are Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zeeland and Denmark. The last positions are occupied by the DR Congo (165th), Syria (166th) and North Korea (167th).
According to the report, “Italy suffered a substantial drop in its global ranking in the 2018 Democracy Index, to 33rd, from 21st in 2017, as deep disillusionment with political institutions.”
Other significant drops in scores were recorded in Austria, Georgia, Hungary, Russia and Turkey.
On the other hand, “substantial improvement” were reported in Armenia, Estonia and the Republic of Macedonia.
More about the Democracy Index 2018