Democracy is in decline

DEMOCRACY INDEX

• The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) latest Democracy Index 2016 shows 72 countries experienced a decline in democratic values last year. Countries with declining levels of democracy outnumbered those becoming more democratic by more than 2 to 1.
• The EIU’s Democracy Index measures the state of democracy by rating electoral processes and pluralism, the state of civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture in more than 160 countries worldwide. 
• World strongest democracies are (1) Norway (2) Iceland (3) Sweden (4) New Zealand (5) Denmark (6) Canada & Ireland (8) Switzerland (9) Finland and (10) Australia in the same order.

• Less than half (49%) the world’s population lives in a democracy of some sort, and only 4.5% reside in a “full democracy.” This is a steep decline from 2015, when it was just under 9%.

• The US is now a flawed democracy. This dramatic decline of US getting demoted to a “flawed democracy,” is as a result of low public confidence in the government in evidence prior to the presidential election that saw Donald Trump become president.
• In the EU referendum, 72% of the UK population turned out to vote, compared to an average of 63% in general elections over the past decade. The UK also saw a marked increase in membership of political parties. As a result, Britain’s democracy score has gone up from 8.31 in 2015 to 8.36 this year, placing it 16th among the “full democracies.”
• The former communist bloc in Eastern Europe has experienced the most significant regression since 2006. There is widespread disenchantment with democracy, with 18 countries in regression on its democratic trajectory and the remaining nine stalling to various degrees. Estonia ranks the highest, at number 29. 
• Sub-Saharan Africa is beating Eastern Europe but is on the back foot in terms of formal democracy. The region has made very little progress, suggesting that it still has a long way to go to improve aspects such as pluralism, the functioning of government and civil liberties, amongst others. Mauritius tops the regional list and is also the only country in the region to be considered a full democracy.
• Latin America has been ahead and last year saw the region supporting pro-market candidates stepping into office. However, Uruguay is the only country to make it into the list of “full democracies,” at number 19.
• After achieving significant headway over the past decade, Asia’s score stagnated in 2016 (5.7), and is lagging behind Latin America (6.3), Europe (8.4) and North America (8.6). Japan is the highest rated, at number 20, which also makes it top of the list of flawed democracies.
• In the Arab countries, Tunisia has slipped by 12 places in the global ranking, putting it toward the bottom of the list of flawed democracies.
• The report confirms that the quality of democracy has receded in the world as more and more of the electorate has been left disenchanted. However, it would appear that there is a silver lining in the increased political participation this has led to in many parts of the world.

INDIA IMPROVES DEMOCRACY INDEX; CIVIL LIBERTIES CURTAILED

• Democracy Index 2016: Revenge Of The Deplorables published by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has yet again termed India a flawed democracy. In the index published by the magazine, India is ranked 32 out 165 nations. Last year India was ranked 35 on the same index. The parameters include electoral processes, functioning of government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties.
• Although India ranked below USA on the overall index, scores better than the USA on all parameters except one. India’s political culture is worse than some authoritarian regimes like China and Sub Saharan African nations like Sierra Leone. 
• Since the Narendra Modi government came to power, there has been a significant improvement in functioning of the government and political participation in India. However, this has been accompanied by a decline in civil liberties and political culture.
• It seeks data from the World Values Survey (WVS) about the proportion of a country’s population that thinks “it would be fairly good to have a strong leader who doesn’t bother with parliament or elections.” 

Political leaders with majority succumbing to temptations and 

overriding institutional procedures in the garb of speed and efficiency 

are betraying the sacrifices made by our freedom fighters and founding fathers 

in establishing the sovereign republic of India ... Manmohan Singh

Since 2014, there is gradual deterioration in democratic governance by Prime Minister Modi with his cabinet ignored, institutions undermined, parliament irrelevant, bureaucracy subverted, election commission influenced, state governments disrespected, media brought to knees, all decisions originating from PMO and quack advises taking precedence over expert advisers and decisions hurriedly implemented. This type of governance is similar to that of Nizams and erstwhile Maharajas, in history books, but unacceptable in 21st century democracies where transparency & accountability are paramount with discretion eliminated. In democratic governance, as a matter of rule, defined procedure must be followed by all including by Prime Minister. The fears of Ambedkar are coming true - Modi's regime is nothing short of establishing Hindu Raj, which in the Indian context meant unbridled rule of the majority community, the Hindus. Modi’s penchant has a chilling similarity with Mussolini's Fascist Italy regime where politics starts to be less concerned with the act of governing people in an efficient way, for instance, in solving their economic problems and social well being. Instead, it is focused more on the spectacle of power, on the visual and impressive display of symbols, myths and rituals. In short India's democracy is in peril!