Bangladesh one notch up on Democracy Index

Bangladesh has moved one notch up to rank 75th among 167 countries on the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index 2021, improving on the indicator of civil liberties from the previous year.

The annual survey, released on Thursday, rated the state of democracy in countries across the globe on the basis of five categories – electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties.

With an overall score of 5.99 on a scale of 10, Bangladesh was classified as a hybrid regime where substantial irregularities prevent elections from being free and fair, corruption tends to be widespread and the rule of law is weak, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. A score of 10 would mean the best performance.

With the same score, the country was in the 76th position in the 2020 index.

On the first Democracy Index released in 2006, Bangladesh was categorised as a flawed democracy with a score of 6.11. The following year, its status demoted to the category of hybrid regime and it has remained so ever since.

Bangladesh has improved its score on civil liberties to 5.29 in 2021 from 4.71 a year ago, but the country's score on political participation fell to 5.56 this year from 6.11.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's scores in electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government and democratic political culture have remained unchanged at 7.42, 6.07, and 5.63 respectively.

Democracy in South Asia

Bangladesh has secured the third position among seven South Asian countries covered in the report.

India ranked 46th with an overall score of 6.91 and Sri Lanka ranked 67th with a score of 6.14 in the 2021 index. Both of those countries were categorised as flawed democracies.

Bhutan did worse than Bangladesh at 81st position while Nepal and Pakistan were further down on the index at 101st and 104th positions respectively. These countries were categorised as hybrid regimes.

Afghanistan, classified as an authoritarian regime, was at the bottom of the global ranking.

Nordic countries continued to dominate the ranking as Norway, New Zealand and Finland were at the top three spots respectively.

Global democracy continue to deteriorate

The global average score fell from 5.37 in 2020 to 5.28 in the Democracy Index 2021, representing a bigger year-on-year decline than the previous year and setting another dismal record for the worst global score since the index was first produced in 2006.

The report said the majority of countries registered a deterioration in their average score or stagnated in 2021, with only 47 (28.1%) recording an improvement. 

Bangladesh is one of the 46 countries that stagnated in 2021, with scores remaining unchanged compared with 2020, according to the EIU report. 

Some 74 countries out of 167 recorded a decline in their total score compared with 2020. 

Meanwhile, the report highlighted that more than a third of the world's population (37.1%) live under authoritarian rule while just 6.4% enjoy a full democracy.