Eius 2024 Democracy index: trend of global democratic decline and strengthening authoritarianism until 2024

Thu, February 27, 2025

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Politicsglobalcountry analysis

The egg index of EIU launched today illuminates the trends in democracy worldwide in 2024, with the annual index registering a decrease of its total number of 5.23 in 2023 to 5.17 (on a scale from 0 to 10).

• The overall point of the global democracy index fell from 5.52 in 2006 to a historical low of 5.17 in 2024, as 130 countries of the 167, which were covered by the index, either recorded a decrease in their score or have not made any improvement.

• More than a third (39.2%) of the world population live under authoritarian rule. Sixty countries are now classified as “authoritarian regime”, an increase of one compared to the 2023 index and an increase of eight compared to a decade in 2014.

• The categories that have recorded the greatest deterioration since 2008 Civil freedom (-1.00 on a scale of 0-10) and Election process and pluralism (-0.66), but the global average score for political participation improved by 0.74 between 2008 and 2024.

• With 8.38, Western Europe has the highest index value of every region and was the only one who improved its total number of points in 2024. The United Kingdom improved its score and rose from the ranking from 18 to 2023 to the 17th century.

• The US point number remained unchanged in 2024 and the United States was still classified as “incorrect democracy”, which occupies 28th place. It remains to be seen whether historical controls and bars remain in force and improve or aggravate the ranking of the United States in 2025.

• The Nordic countries (Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark) continue to dominate the ranking of the democracy Index and take five of the seven top places, with New Zealand second place and Switzerland in fifth place.

• France's number of points fell just below the 8.00 threshold to qualify as a “full democracy”, since the score for the government has decreased. In 2024 France was therefore downgraded from a “full democracy” to a “incorrect democracy”.

• After the turbulent political events at the end of 2024, the scorea scorea also fell below the 8.00 threshold for classification as a “full democracy”.

• Portugal was upgraded to a “full democracy”, as well as Estonia (for the first time) and the Czech Republic (for the first time since 2013), the only two two Eastern European countries that were classified as “full democracies”.

“As the index trend has shown since 2006, the democracies of the world,” says Joan Hoey, director of the democracy index, are fighting while autocrats seem to be gaining strength. “The causes of this lengthy recession of democracy are complex. In this year's report, we discuss the factors that have fueled dissatisfaction with democratic political systems among the population in the past two decades, which led to the rise of political insurgents such as Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Javier Milei and Marine Le Pen. If insurgents come to power and do not improve governance and carry out concrete improvements to the citizens, there is a risk that dissatisfaction and political polarization will increase. “

The decline in the overall index scores in 2024 was attributed by reversal in every region of the world with exceptions to Western Europe, whose average index score through the smallest possible margin (0.01 points) and North America, the score of which remained the same. The other five regions recorded a decline in their average index value, with the largest regressions in the Middle East and North Africa (-0.11) as well as in Asia and Australasia (-0,10).

In 2024, the two index categories that registered the largest declines were How the government works And Election process and pluralism. The latter score with 0.08 compared to 2023, which was disappointing, since so many countries went on surveys in 2024. According to our calculations, 75 countries that were national within the scope of the scope, including eight of the ten most populous countries in the world (Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia and the USA) This “voting relationship” provided some positive results. In many countries, voters have ejected governments that had not delivered. However, many elections were not free and fair, and other requirements of democracy, such as: B. freedom of speech and association were missing. The score for Election process and pluralism decreased in every region except Western Europe and North America.

The How the government works The category recorded a decline of 0.13 points in 2024. This is the lowest category of the index with a global average of 4.53. This poor performance is the result of core weaknesses that affect democratic systems that are developed and developed equally. Standing, functional disorders, corruption, inadequate transparency and lack of accountability have undermined the public's trust in governments, political parties and politicians. In many countries, mighty interest groups and the wealthy significant influence have an impact. The governments store the decision -making process in non -selected areas. Citizens have the feeling that they have no control over their governments. As a result, the trust of the population in democratic institutions has been in decline for many years and contributed to providing overwhelming playback in 2024.

EIUS DEMOCRACY Index 2024 is available at eiu.com/democracy index.

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Thu, February 27, 2025
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Politicsglobalcountry analysis