It is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Stockholm. The report, published by the organization, covered 173 countries and found that nearly half, or 85, had seen their scores decline over the past five years in at least one key measure of democracy, from civil liberties to the independence of the judiciary.
The overall situation has worsened in 2022 for the sixth consecutive year, the longest consecutive decline since research began in 1975.
Many of the world’s democracies have been failing in the past five years in the report’s four main categories, from the decline in equality between different social groups in the United States, press freedom in Austria and access to justice in Britain.
One of the categories into which countries are divided in the report is political representation, or credible elections and effective parliamentary oversight. It has also been found to have worsened in well-functioning democracies such as Costa Rica and Portugal. The wave of coups in Africa has also re-illuminated this worrying global trend.
The second category is the rule of law, which finds that the independence of the judiciary and the degree to which people are free from political violence have weakened around the world, including in countries such as Austria, Hungary and Peru.
The third category is fundamental rights. In many regions, including Austria, El Salvador, Italy, Senegal and Slovenia, people have suffered a decline in basic rights, including freedom of expression and assembly.
Finally, the fourth category is political participation. Here, however, there are more positive features, as political participation has strengthened in many places, including countries such as Ethiopia, Zambia and Fiji.
European countries account for most of the TOP20 countries in the report. Although threats to peace and democracy in the region posed by authoritarianism and democratic decline are still evident, the continent still maintains its status as the world’s most efficient region.
The report’s authors explained that there are encouraging signs, for example in Central Europe, where several countries have made significant progress in the area of democracy, particularly in relation to the rule of law.
At the same time, the democracy scores of many European democracies have deteriorated, including Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
Positive features have been observed for Latvia over the past five years, and also compared to last year.
In the “Political representation” category, Latvia is among the top 50 countries, ranking 44th. On the other hand, in the category of political participation, we have risen by eight places during the year, ranking 31st.
In the category of fundamental rights, since last year, Latvia has remained in 19th place, but six years ago it was in 30th place. On the other hand, in the field of rule of law, Latvia ranked 14th, thus moving up by five places compared to last year.
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2023-11-03 14:34:23
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