Norway named the world’s most democratic country
Norway, which got first place in the overview also in 2020, and gets the best score in three of five categories.
New Zealand follows in second place after climbing from fourth place. Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark follow on the list.
Saving European countries is criticized in the report. Spain is described as a “democracy with shortcomings” as a result of reduced scores related to the independence of the country’s courts, following a political dispute over the appointment of judges.
Britain retains the position of “full democracy”, but falls on the poll as a result of several scandals that have undermined confidence in the authorities.
45.7 percent of the world’s population lived in a country with some form of democracy last year. This is a decrease from 49.4 percent in 2020.
Only 6.4 percent of the world’s people live in countries with “full democracy”. This is a slight decrease from 6.8 per cent the year before.
More than a third of the world’s population, 37.1 percent, live in dictatorship. This is a small increase from 2020. The proportion of authoritarian states has increased regularly in recent years.
Western analysts’ expectations of change in China are shattered in the report. China is already referred to in the report’s title as the “China Challenge”. The country has not become more democratic while the country has become richer. On the contrary, it has become “less free” and is called “authoritarian regime” in the report.