According to the most recent Democracy Report 2022 by the V-Dem Institute at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg, the democracies enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2021 have reverted back to 1989 levels. This shows a rapid regression of the democratic advancements made during the post-Cold War era over the last few years. The report, ‘Democracy Report 2022: Autocratisation Changing Nature?’, is composed with the help of the largest global dataset on democracy produced by Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). This comprises over 30 million data points for 202 countries from 1789 up to 2021.
Evaluation Parameters for Assessing Democracy Status
The report classifies nations into four regime types based on the Liberal Democratic Index (LDI): Liberal Democracy, Electoral Democracy, Electoral Autocracy, and Closed Autocracy. The LDI score covers both liberal (individual and minority rights) and electoral aspects (free and fair elections) of a democracy that are based on 71 indicators forming the Liberal Component Index (LCI) and the Electoral Democracy Index (EDI). The LCI considers elements such as safeguarding individual liberties and imposing legislative constraints on the executive power, while the EDI examines free and fair election assurances like freedom of expression and freedom of association.
Main Findings of the Report: Global Performance
Sweden has topped the LDI index followed by Denmark, Norway, Costa Rica, and New Zealand which form the top five rankings in liberal democracy. However, autocratisation is gaining traction rapidly. The year 2021 saw a record number of 6 coups, resulting in new autocracies in Chad, Guinea, Mali, and Myanmar. Moreover, the number of liberal democracies has dwindled down to the lowest level in over 25 years, with only 34 countries and 13% of the world’s population living in liberal democracies.
Main Findings of the Report: India’s Performance
India’s rank was 93rd in the LDI, placing it in the “bottom 50%” of countries. The country has further descended in the Electoral Democracy Index to the 100th position and lower in the Deliberative Component Index, ranking at 102. In the South Asian context, India is placed below Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan, but higher than Pakistan in the LDI.
Current Global Regime Trends
The current global scenario includes 89 democracies and 90 autocracies, which signifies that electoral autocracy is the most prevalent regime type, accounting for 60 countries and 44% of the world’s population or 3.4 billion people. In contrast, electoral democracies are the second-most common regimes involving 55 countries and encompassing 16% of the world population.
The Changing Nature of Autocratisation
One major driving factor behind autocratisation is “toxic polarisation”, meaning a phenomenon that diminishes the respect for counter-arguments and associated features of the deliberative component of democracy. The report identifies “misinformation” as a significant tool used by autocratising governments to intensify polarisation and manipulate domestic and international opinions. The curbing of civil society and media censorship are other commonly used tactics of autocratising regimes.
Please note that this is just a brief overview of the comprehensive findings presented in the ‘Democracy Report 2022: Autocratisation Changing Nature?’. For a thorough understanding of all the details, the readers are advised to refer to the full report.
