The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released the sixteenth 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 2023. 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: 6-7.99), “hybrid regimes” (score: 4-5.99), and “authoritarian regimes” (score: 0-4). In this vein, 24 countries (14.4% of countries covered; 7.8% of world population) emerged as “full democracies”, 50 countries (29.9% of countries covered; 37.6% of world population) as “flawed democracies”, 34 countries (20.4% of countries covered; 15.2% of world population) as “hybrid regimes”, and 59 countries (35.3% of countries covered; 39.4% of world population) as “authoritarian regimes”. According to the findings of the EIU report, the year 2023 saw a drop in the global average index score to an all-time low of 5.23, down from 5.29 in 2022, with the EIU attributing said drop to the plethora of conflicts around the world. More specifically, some 68 nations experienced a deterioration in their total score compared with their 2022 scores and only 32 recorded an improvement in their overall score. Nevertheless, the report highlighted that 45.4% of the world’s population lived in some form of democracy compared to a lower proportion of 45.3% in 2022. In the same vein, the report added that only 7.8% of the world’s population lived in full democracy and more than one third (39.4%) lived under an authoritarian regime.

In figures, and on a global level, Norway topped the list of the world’s most democratic countries (score: 9.81) for yet another consecutive year, followed by New Zealand (score: 9.61) and Iceland (score: 9.45). The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remained the poorest performing region in the world in the 2023 Democracy Index, with its average even dropping in 2023 to 3.23 down from 3.34 a year ago. Tunisia, characterized by a “hybrid regime”, ranked first in the region in the 2023 Democracy Index, with an overall score of 5.51 while also ranking 82^nd in the world and advancing by 3 positions from its 2022 ranking. Morocco, also falling under the “hybrid regime”, came second in the region (score: 5.04; global rank: 93) and improved by 2 positions as well from its 2022 rank. Lebanon, which remained in the “authoritarian” regime territory, witnessed another round of deterioration in its overall score in 2023, which fell from 3.64 in 2022 to 3.56 in 2023. The country rank 112^th in the world in the 2023 democracy index and 5^th in the region, improving by 3 positions from its 115^th place in 2022. The report mentioned that Lebanon saw a resurgence of political violence which has delayed any future prospects for peace, security and democracy in the country.