{"id":419948,"date":"2025-02-27T15:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T14:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/27\/nel-2024-la-democrazia-si-e-deteriorata-a-livello-globale\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T16:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T15:07:14","slug":"democracy-deteriorated-globally-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/27\/democracy-deteriorated-globally-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy deteriorated globally in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Brussels &#8211; Democracy is not doing well globally. In the super-election year that just finished, <strong>the health of the global\u00a0democratic system<\/strong> <strong>deteriorated<\/strong> to <strong>the worst results in nearly two decades<\/strong>. Western Europe holds, but other world regions have backtracked\u00a0significantly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8220;Democracy is the worst system of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.&#8221; The famous phrase of\u00a0<strong>Winston Churchill<\/strong> in a speech to the House of Commons in November 1947 (moreover, quoting an unknown author) continues to hold\u00a0today. Democracy is <strong>a political, institutional system full of problems and contradictions<\/strong>, resting on a precarious balance\u00a0constantly on the verge of breaking down. Yet, it is the only one, at least among those tried in the history of mass human societies, capable of guaranteeing <strong>a satisfactory level of freedom and equality for all<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3 id='how-the-survey-works'  id=\"boomdevs_1\">How the survey works<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">However, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/interactive\/democracy-index-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">latest survey<\/a> published today (Feb. 27) by the <strong>Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)<\/strong>, <strong>democracy is not enjoying good health worldwide<\/strong>. Health deteriorated during 2024 despite being a record year for the number and scope of elections. Indeed, since it began collecting its data in 2006, <strong>the EIU has never painted such a bleak picture.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-o-mail-quote-node=\"1\" data-o-mail-quote=\"1\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Western Europe has the largest number of \u201cfull democracies\u201d, with Nordic countries dominating four of the top seven positions in EIU\u2019s Democracy Index 2024. Find out why in our free report: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DjI3ShbhQZ\">https:\/\/t.co\/DjI3ShbhQZ<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DemocracyIndex?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#DemocracyIndex<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Markets?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Markets<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Economy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Economy<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aFzQPCVMG3\">pic.twitter.com\/aFzQPCVMG3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Economist Intelligence: EIU (@TheEIU) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheEIU\/status\/1895038879708680326?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">February 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">The <i>Economist<\/i> analysts assign a <strong>score from\u00a0zero to ten<\/strong> to 167 countries and territories based on five criteria: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.\u00a0The countries are then grouped into four categories: <strong>full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 id='some-global-trends'  id=\"boomdevs_2\" class=\"p1\">Some global trends<\/h3>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">\n<p class=\"p1\">The average global score <strong>dropped to 5.17, touching a new all-time low<\/strong>: the highest value was reached in 2015 (with 5.55), while in 2023, the aggregate figure stood at 5.23. In a perhaps counterintuitive development, despite 2024 being a super-election year (about 1.65 billion votes in more than 75 countries, according to EIU calculations), <strong>the index related to the electoral process dropped 0.08 points<\/strong> compared to 2023 due to elections that were not always free and fair, as well as even substantial restrictions on freedom of speech and association.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The index of <strong>functioning of government<\/strong> saw an even more significant drop (-0.13) to 4.53 points globally&#8221;This poor performance is the result of the <strong>fundamental weaknesses that plague democratic systems<\/strong>, both developed and developing,&#8221; the analysts say. &#8220;Inaction, dysfunction, corruption, insufficient transparency, and lack of <i>accountability<\/i> have undermined public trust in governments, political parties, and politicians,&#8221; they continue, which is why &#8220;<strong>citizen confidence in democratic institutions has been declining for many years<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_367471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 1024px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/000_34VG8ZL-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-367471 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/000_34VG8ZL-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Elezioni Europee 2024 Paesi Bassi\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/000_34VG8ZL-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/000_34VG8ZL-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/000_34VG8ZL-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/000_34VG8ZL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/000_34VG8ZL-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/000_34VG8ZL-750x500.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/000_34VG8ZL-1140x760.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-367471\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: John Thuys\/Afp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">Only <strong>6.6 percent of the global population lives in a complete democracy<\/strong>, just over half of the 12.5 percent a decade ago. Counting even those living in an imperfect democracy, comes to just over 45 percent. Nearly <strong>two out of every five people<\/strong> (39.2 percent of the total) <strong>live in an authoritarian regime<\/strong> (a category that includes 60 states around the world, mainly among the African and Asian continents), with the remaining about 15 percent in hybrid regimes that combine electoral democracy and authoritarian tendencies.<\/p>\n<h3 id='the-overall-ranking'  id=\"boomdevs_3\" class=\"p1\">The overall ranking<\/h3>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">\n<p class=\"p1\">In 2024, <strong>the most democratic country in the world was Norway<\/strong> for the 16th year in a row (with 9.81 points out of the maximum of 10). The other\u00a0podium positions went to <strong>New Zealand<\/strong> and <strong>Sweden<\/strong> (9.61 and 9.39, respectively), while <strong>at the bottom of the rankings<\/strong>\u00a0were\u00a0<strong>Afghanistan<\/strong> (0.25), <strong>Myanmar<\/strong> (0.96), and <strong>North Korea<\/strong> (1.08). The <strong>United States<\/strong> is 28th with 7.85 points (imperfect democracy), <strong>India<\/strong> is 41st with 7.29 (imperfect democracy),\u00a0<strong>Ukraine<\/strong> is 92nd with 4.9 points (hybrid regime), <strong>China<\/strong> is 145th at 2.11 (authoritarian regime), and <strong>Russia<\/strong> is 150th at 2.03 (authoritarian regime).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Except for New Zealand, <strong>the top ten rankings are all European countries;\u00a0<\/strong>after Norway and Sweden are <strong>Iceland<\/strong>, <strong>Switzerland<\/strong>, <strong>Finland<\/strong>, <strong>Denmark<\/strong>, <strong>Ireland<\/strong>, the\u00a0<strong>Netherlands,<\/strong> and <strong>Luxembourg<\/strong>. The <strong>United Kingdom<\/strong> rose from 18th to 17th place with 8.34 points. Consequently, <strong>the Western European region is the only one to improve<\/strong> its aggregate score (albeit by an imperceptible 0.01),\u00a0averaging 8.38 points in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In contrast, there was a\u00a0<strong>deterioration<\/strong>\u00a0in the <strong>Middle East &amp;\u00a0North Africa<\/strong> (-0.11 points) and\u00a0<strong>Asia &amp;\u00a0Australasia<\/strong> (-0.10). Of the 167 countries and territories analyzed by the EIU, only 37 showed some improvement over the previous year.<\/p>\n<h3 id='how-s-the-eu-doing'  id=\"boomdevs_4\" class=\"p1\">How&#8217;s the EU doing?&#8221;<\/h3>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">\n<p class=\"p1\">As for EU member states, <strong>13 out of 27 are complete democracies<\/strong> (in order of score: Germany, Austria, Estonia and Spain tied, Czechia and Portugal tied, and Greece), while <strong>the remaining are imperfect democracies<\/strong>. Among the latter, <strong>France<\/strong> is 26th (with 7.99 points), <strong>Italy<\/strong> 37th (7.58), and <strong>Poland<\/strong> 39th (7.4). At the bottom of the ranking\u00a0is\u00a0<strong>Romania<\/strong>, with 72nd place out of 167, which stops just below sufficiency (5.99 points) and thus falls into the group of <strong>hybrid regimes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">France fell in category between 2023 and 2024, dropping out of the family of complete democracies (you need at least 8 out of 10 points to rank that way) due to the <strong>deteriorating index of trust in government<\/strong>\u00a0following last year&#8217;s deep political crisis.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_419914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 1024px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YN8FL.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-419914 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YN8FL-1024x720.jpg\" alt=\"C\u0103lin Georgescu\" width=\"1024\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YN8FL-1024x720.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YN8FL-300x211.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YN8FL-768x540.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YN8FL-1536x1080.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YN8FL-750x528.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YN8FL-1140x802.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-419914\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supporters of C\u0103lin Georgescu protest against his arrest, February 26, 2025 (photo: Daniel Mihailescu\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">As for <strong>Romania<\/strong>, the downgrade to a hybrid regime &#8211; the only member state in this category &#8211; followed the <strong>political-institutional chaos<\/strong>\u00a0after the <strong>annulment\u00a0of\u00a0presidential elections<\/strong>\u00a0in December as a result of Russian interference (just yesterday, the pro-Russian candidate and main suspect, <strong>C\u0103lin Georgesc,<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/26\/romania-pro-russian-candidate-georgescu-detained-by-police\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was briefly detained<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Instead,<strong> there were positive evolutions<\/strong> in <strong>Czechia<\/strong>, <strong>Estonia,<\/strong> and <strong>Portugal<\/strong>, which have joined the family of complete democracies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to data collected by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the past year democratic standards deteriorated in many countries. The top 10 are almost all European, but there are problems on the Old Continent as well<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":366339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25816,27048],"class_list":["post-419948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-democracy-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419948"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419959,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419948\/revisions\/419959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}