The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released the twelfth edition of its “Democracy Index” in which it measures the state of democracy in 167 countries (165 independent states and 2 territories) around the globe in the year 2019. Said index is the arithmetic average of the scores reported in five major dimensions of democracy, namely “electoral process and pluralism”, “civil liberties”, “the functioning of government”, “political participation”, and “political culture”. The report also classifies countries under four main types of regimes, namely “full democracies” (score: 8-10), “flawed democracies” (score: 6-7.9), “hybrid regimes” (score: 4-5.9), and “authoritarian regimes” (score: 0-4). In this vein, 22 countries (13.2% of countries covered; 5.7% of world population) emerged as “full democracies”, 54 countries (32.3% of countries covered; 42.7% of world population) as “flawed democracies”, 37 countries (22.2% of countries covered; 16.0% of world population) as “hybrid regimes”, and 54 countries (32.3% of countries covered; 35.6% of world population) as “authoritarian regimes”. According to the findings of the EIU report, the year 2019 was a year of “democratic setbacks and global protests”. In fact, the average global score in the Democracy Index in 2019 fell for the first time since the year 2010. More specifically, some 68 nations experienced a deterioration in their total score compared with 2018 scores and 65 recorded an improvement in their overall score. Nevertheless, the report highlighted that 48.4% of the world’s population lived in some form of democracy compared to a lower proportion of 47.7% in 2018. In the same vein, the report added that only 5.7% of the world’s population lived in full democracy and more than one third lived under an authoritarian regime, with a big share represented by China alone.

In figures, and on a global level, Norway topped the list of the world’s most democratic countries (score: 9.87) for yet consecutive year, followed by Iceland (score: 9.58) and Sweden (score: 9.39). The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remained the poorest performing region in the world in the 2019 Democracy Index. After political and social unrest in early 2010, most of the region’s nations witnessed only marginal changes in their respective democracy scores. Tunisia, characterized by a “flawed democracy”, ranked first in the region in the 2019 Democracy Index, with an overall score of 6.72 and a global rank of 53 improving by 10 positions from 2018. Morocco, which was considered as a “hybrid regime”, came second (score: 5.10; global rank: 96) improving by four position in comparison with its 2018 global rank, followed by Lebanon (“hybrid regime”) which scored 4.36 and ranked 106 in the world, maintaining its previous year’s position. The report noted that Lebanon was one of the counties to witness a popular frustration as a result of the prevailing economic stagnation and corruption. The report added that Lebanon’s already dismal score in the “functioning of government” pillar has further deteriorated in the year 2019.