ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT RANKS ARMENIA AS MOST DEMOCRATIC STATE OF THE REGION
Posted on February. 23. 2022
In this year’s Democracy Index 2021 published by the Economist
Intelligence Unit (EIU) Armenia is ranked as a country with a hybrid
system of government. The EIU released its report on the state of
democracy in 2021 across 165 independent countries and two territories.
The report is based on five findings – electoral process and pluralism, functioning of the government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. The report has been further bifurcated into a full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime, and authoritarian.
In the EIU report Armenia is 89th with a total score of 5.49. Its South Caucasus neighbor Georgia, which is also in the list of countries with a hybrid system of government, is 91st with a total score of 5.12. Turkey with 4.35 points is 103rd and Azerbaijan with 2.68 points in 141st. Armenia was also 89th in the Democracy 2020 Index with 5.35 points.
Out of 167 countries included in the survey by EIU, only 21 countries have been put under the category of full democracy while 53 are included under the flawed democracy category.
Thirty-four countries are counted among hybrid democracies and 59 are authoritarian governments. The score for 74 countries showed a decline on the democracy index compared to 2020. The report says that more than one-third of the world’s population live under authoritarian rule.
Norway is ranked at the top of the democracy index followed by New Zealand, Finland and Iceland. Afghanistan occupies the bottom place in the index followed by Myanmar and North Korea in 2nd and 3rd position from the bottom.
The ranking is decided based on 60 indicators grouped into these five categories on a scale of 1-10.