India slipped in the ranking by 10 spots to 51st in the annual democracy index released by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), worst since 2006.
Delhi| In the recent annual democracy index released by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), India has slipped by 10 spots retaining its status as ‘flawed democracy’. India was ranked 51 in the index for 2019- its lowest since the ranking started in 2006.
India had scored 7.23 out of 10 in 2018. The score slipped to 6.90 from2019 in light of the “erosion of civil liberties”. The country was ranked 42 in 2017 and 41 in 2018.
As cited by EIU, the index is calculated based on 5 categories- electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture. The ranking is decided by the 60 indicators that the index uses. Later, the countries are classified as one of four types of the regime- full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime, and authoritarian regime.
The index studied political systems of 165 countries and two territories around the world. EIU confirmed that 2019 was the worst year for world democracies since 2016. The global score fell from 5.48 in 2018 to 5.44 in 2019.
With a combined population of 430 million, only 22 countries were recognized as “full democracies” in 2019. More than a third of the world population is found to be living under an authoritarian regime.
Norway topped the list whereas North Korea is at the bottom.
Most Asian countries trickled down in the rankings due to protests against the regimes. India’s ranking is believed to be fallen because of the protests against citizenship act in the latter part of the year.
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