Russia is the country in the world where democracy has declined the most in 2022 ahead of Burkina Faso and Haiti, according to a study published this Thursday by the British group The Economist producing a democracy index in 167 countries.
Following the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russia’s Democracy Index experienced the biggest drop in 2022, falling 22 places in the world rankings of this study by the group’s research and analysis division (EIU), which ranks Russia ranked 146.
The war in Ukraine “exposed divisions between developed democracies that support Ukraine and many developing countries that have chosen not to take sides,” the study says.
Among the “authoritarian regimes”, other countries such as Haiti “which seems to be in a state of internal dissolution” (135, -16 places) and Burkina Faso (127, -16 places), where “an Islamist insurrection has lost control of part of the territory to the State” also saw their index drop sharply in 2022.
France, “total democracy”
The lifting of restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic has boosted the scores of many countries, including France (22nd, stable), Spain (also 22nd, +2 places) and Chile (19th +6 places) which They return to the group. of “complete democracies”. At the regional level, Western Europe is the only region to decisively improve its score in 2022.
“Those in North America, Asia, Australasia, Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa have stagnated, and those in Latin America, the Middle East and ‘North Africa’ suffered falls,” the study added.
Globally, the 2022 democracy index fell from 5.28 in 2021 to 5.29 in 2022. A stabilization after last year’s fall of 0.09 points.
The study identifies five categories of criteria to establish the ranking: electoral processes and pluralism, government functioning, political participation, political culture and civil liberties.
Source: BFM TV
