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Ongoing economic and political crises in the developed world have led to ratings dropping in most developed countries. There were also drops in Latin America and Asia. However, the ratings improved in both the Arab Countries and sub-Saharan Africa.
Just over 160 countries were assessed.
- Norway came first place with a score of 9.80/10 - both are unchanged from last year.
- The United States saw a minor drop from 17th to 19th place.
- The United Kingdom is ranked at 18th, Ireland at 12th, Germany at 14th, Japan at 21st, France at 29th, Italy at 31st, Israel at 36th and India at 39th.
- Portugal was downgraded from full democracy to flawed democracy. This was attributed to a decline in sovereignity due to the Eurozone crisis and the collapse of the cabinet earlier this year.
- Some countries dropped further without crossing the thresholds: Greece dropped from 28th to 32nd. Spain dropped from 19th to 25th. Britain, France and Germany all had the same scores as last year.
- To my knowledge, only three Muslim-majority nations are classified as democratic: Indonesia (60th), Mali (62nd) and Malaysia (=71st). Turkey, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iraq and a few others are hybrids.
- Speaking of Mali, which is located south of Algeria, it jumped from 79th to 62nd for reasons I have not been able to pin down.
- Only one country in Africa is considered a full democracy - Mauritius (it's an island). There are seven flawed democracies: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mali, Ghana, Benin and Zambia.
- Cuba is the last proper dictatorship in Latin America. Venezuela is a hybrid regime. Nevertheless, only Uruguay and Costa Rica are full democracies and other democracies are frequently undermined by corruption.
- Zambia, in southern Africa, was upgraded from 91st to =71st place and crossed from hybrid to democracy. This year, opposition leader Michael Sata won the presidential election, ending 20 years of rule by one party.
- Ukraine was downgraded from 67th to 79th from a flawed democracy to a hybrid regime. My guess is that this was partly due to Yulia Tymoshenko (the opposition leader) being jailed.
- Tunisia was this years big winner and took a leap this year from 144th to 92nd place, making it a hybrid regime. The transition to democracy was quite orderly and following a groundbreaking free election in October, an elected government has been formed and a constitution is being drafted. There has also been a great increase in political activity and press freedom.
- Mauritania (south of Morocco) also improved from 115th to 109th, also crossing over to becoming a hybrid. The country saw pro-democracy protests this year.
- Niger crossed the same threshold and moved from 128th to 111th, with elections being held and a year of military rule being ended. The country is located north of Nigeria and pronounced nee-zhair.
- Iraq remains a hybrid regime, but is quite close to the official threshold that would classify it as an authoritarian regime.
- Egypt increased from 138th to 115th place, as the overthrow of Mubarak led to an increase of freedom and open elections. It's still classified as authoritarian, though isn't far from the official threshold. The increase was smaller than Tunisia, as an elected government has not yet taken seat and the press and political activists lack much freedom.
- Russia dropped from 107th to 117th and crossed the threshold to becoming authoritarian, which appears to be exactly the direction Vladimir Putin has been heading in for some time. This coincides with the year that Putin announced he would run again for President (for a term of six years), and an election last month that was widely flawed. Putin has always advertised himself as a democrat but often stated that Western European liberal democracy is unsuited for Russia.
- Libya remains an authoritarian regime, but the fall of Gaddafi has made it a lot less repressive and a transition to elected government is being planned - not to mention the fact that Benghazi is still standing. The country has jumped from 158th (being tied with Iran) to 125th place.
- Although president Gbagbo was ousted by an opposition leader earlier last year after months of protests and fighting, the Ivory Coast's rating hasn't improved much.
- In Arab countries where protestors have been met with crackdowns, ratings have gone down. Bahrain dropped from 122nd place to 144th place. Syria dropped from 152nd to 157th place. In those where they have been answered with moderate reform, the ratings have improved only slightly. Oman increased from 143rd to 134th place, while Jordan and Morocco didn't move much.
- Despite the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and some other promising developments, Burma's position has barely changed.
- South Sudan has not been assessed.
- North Korea is rooted at the bottom with a score of 1.08/10. The lowest possible score is 1/10. I'm intrigued to find out where the 0.08 bit came from.
Top 10 most democratic countries:
- Norway
- Iceland
- Denmark
- Sweden
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Switzerland
- Canada
- Finland
- Netherlands
Top 10 most authoritarian countries:
- Erm, I forgot?
- Chad
- Turkmenistan
- Uzbekistan
- Burma
- Equitorial Guinea
- Saudi Arabia
- Central African Republic
- Iran
- Syria
