Freedom House, the Washington-based non-profit research organization, released this week its latest report titled “Freedom in the World 2019: Democracy in Retreat”, which evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 14 territories. The report unveiled a deterioration in global freedom for the thirteenth consecutive year whereby year 2018 saw a setback in democracy in all continents, from well-established democracies such as the United States, to authoritarian regimes like China and Russia. Furthermore, the report stated that while the overall drops in democracy remain small compared to the gains in the late 20^th century, the decline in democracy has been steady and worrying. In detail, 68 nations witnessed net drops in political rights and civil liberties in the year 2018, while only 50 recorded gains. The report added that the proportion of “not free” countries rose over the last 13 years and the crisis of confidence in well-established democracies has deepened. In numbers, 116 nations have suffered a net decline since 2006, while only 63 underwent a net progress. In fact, the democratic standards such as free and fair elections and free expression are being destroyed.

With respect to the results of the report, it is worth noting first that each evaluated country or territory is assigned a score ranging between 0 and 4 on 25 key indicators (so that countries can reach an aggregate score of 100; 0: least free – 100: most free). Moreover, said scores are used to determine two numerical ratings, ranging between 1 and 7, for two main indicators of freedom, namely political rights and civil liberties (1: most free - 7: least free). The average rating of the two equally-weighted indicators thus determines a country or territory’s overall status of “free” (rating: [1, 3]), “partly free” (rating: ]3, 5]), and “not free” (rating: ]5, 7]).

On a global level, out of the 195 assessed countries representing a population of 7.6 billion, 86 countries (44% of all included countries) with a total population of 3.0 billion (39% of the covered population) emerged as “free”, 59 countries (30% of all included countries) home to 1.8 billion people (24% of the covered population) were classified as “partly free”, and 50 countries (26% of all included countries) hosting a population of 2.8 billion (37% of the covered population) were considered “not free”. Overall, and as far as global rankings are concerned, three Scandinavian countries, namely Finland, Norway, and Sweden, topped the list of countries in terms of freedom in the year 2018, each scoring 100 and receiving a general rating of 1.0, entitling them to classify as “free”. Regionally, Tunisia was again the top performer when it comes to freedom in Arab countries in 2018, emerging as the only “free” Arab nation with an aggregate score of 69 and a general rating of 2.5. Comoros came second in the region with a “partly free” status, an aggregate score of 50, and a general rating of 4.0. Lebanon followed in the regional rankings, classified as “partly free” with a score of 45 and a general rating of 4.5 (scoring 5 on the political rights front and 4 in civil liberties). The report further elaborated that the May 2018 parliamentary elections took place in Lebanon for the first time since 2009, reinstating a degree of legitimacy to the government after several delays and easing tensions in the country.