Portugal suffered setbacks in the quality of democracy – News from Coimbra
The Global Report on the State of Democracy reveals that Portugal was the only country in Western Europe that registered a fall in three of the parameters that measure the quality of democracies.
The report – from the International Institute for Democracy and Welfare (International IDEA), based in Stockholm – measures the democratic performance of 158 countries since 1975 and provides a diagnosis of the state of democracies around the world.
Overall, the report shows that the world is becoming more authoritarian and that democratic governments are backing down, resorting to repressive practices and weakening the rule of law.
Regarding Portugal, the report concludes that the democratic regime has suffered a setback in independent areas – judicial independence, absence of corruption and equality before the law – being the only country in Western Europe that registers a fall in three evaluation parameters.
In Eastern Europe there are countries – such as Hungary, Poland and Slovenia – that fell in four parameters, but, to the west, the Portuguese regime was the worst compared to the 2019 report.
Still, in various parameters of the degree of the state of democracy, Portugal measures itself positively against the average of the group of Western European countries – which includes Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland or the United Kingdom – and is even above the Southern Europe group average – where it is located, alongside Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain and Turkey.
In the parameters of government representation, Portugal’s score is 0.87, against 0.84 for Western Europe and 0.80 for Southern Europe; in electoral transparency, Portugal’s score is 0.92, against 0.90 for Western Europe and 0.84 for Southern Europe; in the freedom of political parties, Portugal’s score is 0.79, against 0.76 for Western Europe and 0.75 for Southern Europe; and in civil liberties, Portugal’s score is 0.89, against 0.87 for Western Europe and 0.75 for Southern Europe.
The weaknesses of the Portuguese democratic regime are essentially in the areas where the country suffered a setback compared to 2019.
In access to justice, Portugal’s score is only 0.71, against 0.87 for Western Europe and 0.74 for Southern Europe; in judicial independence, Portugal’s score is 0.74, against 0.78 in Western Europe and 0.64 in Southern Europe; in the absence of corruption, Portugal’s score is 0.66, against 0.85 for Western Europe and 0.62 for Southern Europe; and in the participation of civil society, Portugal’s score is 0.58, against 0.81 for Western Europe and 0.62 for Southern Europe.
Portugal sees slight drops in three parameters – judicial independence, absence of corruption and equality before the law – compared to the previous report, from 2019, which was based on data from before the covid-19 pandemic.
The health crisis could have a negative impact on Portuguese democracy, as happened in numerous countries all over the world, conclude the researchers of International IDEA.
“Portugal remains in the intermediate group, with regard to the quality of democracy. And revelations even very positive indexes in several parameters. The greatest weakness seems to lie in the application of justice and the effort to fight corruption”, said Kevin Casas-Zamora, secretary general of the International IDEA, to Lusa.
On the parameter of corruption, Casas-Zamora attributes the most worrying signs to an increase in the public visibility of the problem in Portugal.
“As far as we can see, there have been a series of judicial investigations that have revealed serious problems of corruption involving judges and high political officials”, acknowledged the secretary general of the organization responsible for the report.