Global democracy has had a very bad year as the pandemic caused an unprecedented rollback of democratic freedoms, according to the Economist Global Democracy Index 2020.
The annual survey rates the state of democracy across 167 countries, based on electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture, and civil liberties. This year’s index found that just 8.4% of the global population live in a full democracy while one-third of the world’s population, equivalent to 2.54 billion, live under authoritarian rule.
The global score with 0 being the least democratic and 10 being the most, fell at 5.37, the lowest recorded since the index began in 2006.
Issues that contributed to the low score in 2020 included government-imposed lockdowns and pandemic-control measures that led to a significant rollback in civil liberties. While many conceded that the temporary loss of freedom was necessary to control the spread of the disease, the ranking penalized those who didn’t allow scrutiny of power or denied freedom of expression. this saw countries such as France, drop into the “flawed democracy” category.
But it wasn’t all bad news. Taiwan was upgraded to a “full democracy” rising an impressive 20 places to number 11. This was following elections in January 2020, characterized by a strong voter turn out including many youths.
Albania performed well and was upgraded from a “hybrid regime” to a “flawed democracy”. The overall score was 6.08, higher than the global average, and the country ranked at number 71.
Unfortunately, the country scored badly and below the global average for the functioning of government and political participation. Its overall score was pulled up by a relatively high score of 7.35 for civil liberties.
The country’s score improved by a meagre 0.19 points from 5.89 the previous year. The lowest ever score was noted in 2012, 2013, and 2014 when Albania scored just 5.67. points. Things improved slightly for the following three years and then plunged again in 2019.
In the region, Albania was surpassed by Serbia, and Hungary, both of which had serious issues with democratic processes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It performed better than neighbour North Macedonia, as well as Montenegro.
The Economist said that Albania’s increase in score was driven by a number of electoral forms but it remains unclear whether they will result in free or fair elections.
The number one spot in the ranking went to Norway with 9.81, followed by Iceland with 9.37 and Sweden with 9.26.
Bottom of the list with 1.08 points was North Korea. Second to last place went to the Democratic Republic of Congo with 1.13 points and the Central African republic with 1.32 points.
