Norway: the most democratic country in the world
"A year of democratic setbacks and social protests" . This sentence summarizes the year in the report of the Democracy Index launched every year by the Intelligence Unit of The Economist (EIU) . The Democracy Index 2019 , takes stock of all the events that for 365 days kept us abreast of the headlines of the main media, and draws conclusions and reflections on the panorama to come.
This index serves as a sort of thermometer that assesses the democratic fragility or strength of each country on the globe. Ultimately, it is about trying assess the real level of democracy in the world.
“The global march of democracy stalled in the 2000s and regressed in the second decade of the 21st century. But the recent wave of protests in developing countries and the populist insurgency of mature democracies, show the potential for democratic renewal", says Joan Hoey, editor of The Democracy Index.
Evolution of democracy from 2018 to 2019
METHODOLOGY: HOW THE DEMOCRACY OF A COUNTRY IS MEASURED
To do this, the Intelligence Unit studies the situation of 165 independent countries and two territories (excluding the microstates of the world) based on five pillars: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, government functioning, political participation and political culture.
The total score is calculated based on 60 different indicators within each of the five categories above. And that is when, with the final result, the countries are classified into four groups: full democracy, weak democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime.
Categorization of countries according to their level of democracy
THE WORST DEMOCRATIC INDEX TO DATE
Roughly, of the 165 countries, 22 countries are fully democratic, 54 fragile, 37 hybrid and 54 authoritarian regimes. This year, two countries were added to the category of full democracy (Chile, France and Portugal moved up the category, while Malta became part of the group of 'weak' democracies) .
THE KEYS TO THE DEMOCRATIC INDEX 2019
1. Iraq and Palestine pass, from hybrid to authoritarian regime
two. Algeria, Instead, it rises to the category of hybrid regime
3.**El Salvador and Thailand** go from hybrid regime to fragile democracy
4.** Senegal,** on the other hand, goes from fragile democracy to hybrid regimen.
5. Regression of rights both in Latin America and in sub-Saharan Africa
6. Slight regression in the Middle East and North Africa
7 . Generalized stagnation in the rest of the regions included in this study.
8. Asia and Australasian and the Eastern and Western Europe they have not managed to advance in this index since 2018.
9. The exception to this regression is, however, Canada (thanks, Trudeau) , with a slight advance of 0.03 points.
10. China It is the country that has registered the most democratic backwardness in this 2018; Thailand , which has made the most progress.
11.**Norway** is again the first democracy in the world (with a 9.87, from 0 to 10)
12.**North Korea** remains the least democratic country in the world, with a score of 1.08 (from 0 to 10)
This places the world on a global democratic index (from 0 to 10) of a 5.44%, which makes it the worst data to date since the birth of this index in 2006. Last year's index was 5.48% and that of 2010, the year of the global economic and financial crisis, was 5.46%.
The global map according to the type of democracy in 2019
THE FALL OF 'TOTAL DEMOCRACY'
In this twelfth edition of the report (the index was published for the first time in 2006), The Economist points out that at least half the planet lives "in some kind of democracy" , though only 5.7% of this resides in a full democracy (in 2015, the percentage was 8.9%).
Data may be meaningless without any context. But let's put it in perspective: in the year 2016, USA it went from being in the group of countries with total democracy to that of "weak democracy". And that truncated the percentage until today.
But the other piece of information, the less friendly one, reveals a harsher reality than the American one: " more than a third of the world's population lives under an authoritarian regime, with a large percentage occupied by China ".
The two great world economic powers, the United States and China, suffer from a great lack of democracy. Or what is the same: big income, few rights.
**THE MOST DEMOCRATIC COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD (2019) **
Let's leave a little hope in the calls full democracies , the first of the list. Full democracies leading 22 countries around the world. Spain , ranked 17th in the world, gains two points compared to 2018 with a 8.29 total score (only 0.29 points separate us from the "weak democracy" category).
1. Norway
two. Iceland
3. Sweden
Four. New Zealand
5. Finland
6. Ireland
7. Denmark
8. Canada
9. Australia
10. Swiss
eleven. Netherlands
12. Luxembourg
13. Germany
14. United Kingdom
fifteen. Uruguay
16. Austria
17. Spain
18. Maurice Island
19 Costa Rican
twenty. France
twenty-one. Chili
22. Portugal