A Democracy Index for Austria | MON | 11/28/2022 | 13:00
November 28, 2022 at 1:00 p.m
A new democracy index is intended to survey the strengths and weaknesses of democracy in Austria. It was created by eight non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Since 2015, they have been examining seven areas of democracy in a comparison between international standards and practice in Austria.
Overall, the state of democracy in Austria therefore reaches a value of 57%, recorded with the potential. There were relatively good results – with over 60 percentage points – in four areas: civil society, media, parties and sovereign (especially in the area of fundamental rights). The judiciary (58.5%) is in the middle with deficiencies in the aspects of independence and separation of powers. Below that is the field of legislature with 43%, here the assessment of the report mainly lacks transparency and resources. The executive branch brings up the rear with 31%, i.e. governmental and administrative activities – here, according to the evaluation criteria, there is a lack of freedom of information and control.
What improvements are necessary and possible? What conditions are necessary so that democracy can be lived more, also with the active participation of the citizens?
Luise Wernisch-Liebich is the managing director of the organizationpx.net, which promotes civil society engagement and, among other things, organizes citizens’ councils on various topics. Josef Barth is co-founder of the founding association Austrian Democracy Foundation, which aims to raise awareness of democracy and the rule of law in Austria, and co-initiator of the Democracy Index.
Johann Kneihs talks to his guests and to you: What does democracy mean to you – standards and in practice? What improvements do you think are the most important? What motivates you to be active in society and politics – or deters you?
The editors look forward to your call on 0800 22 69 79, free of charge during the broadcast, or an e-mail to punkteins(at)orf.at
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All results are below democracy index viewable.