Spain is once again considered a full democracy. After a 2021 in which the country had suffered a setback due to the polarization of the country, the 2022 Democracies Index has once again strengthened the quality of the country’s system.
This is revealed by the report prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an independent business unit in The Economist group. According to it, Spain has once again obtained a score of more than 8 out of 10, thus leaving what the body considered as deficient democracy.
The study is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, government functioning, political participation, political culture and civil liberties. Based on their scores on a number of indicators within these categories, each country is classified as one of four regime types: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime, or authoritarian regime.
The report highlights as the main person responsible for improving the quality of democracy in Spain “the lifting of the measures related to the pandemic by the Government”. The relaxation of the restrictions, according to the EIU, translates into “an improvement in civil liberties and the functioning of the categories related to the functioning of the Executive”.
There are, however, situations that still tense Spanish politics. “Political polarization remains high ahead of the 2023 elections, and political scandals and Catalan separatism continue to pose challenges for governance,” highlights the organization linked to The Economist.
As assessed by the EIU’s panel of experts, 72 of the 167 countries and territories covered by the model, or 43.1% of the total, can be considered democracies. The number of full democracies increased to 24 in 2022, up from 21 in 2021. The countries that have upgraded are Chile, France and Spain.
The number of flawed democracies fell by five to 48 in 2022. Of the remaining 95 countries in our index, 59 are authoritarian regimes, the same as in 2021, and 36 are classified as “hybrid regimes,” up from 34 the year before.
Thailand has recorded the biggest overall score improvement in 2022. Other big gains were Angola and Niger, from a low base in the authoritarian regime category, and Montenegro and Greece, both classified as “flawed democracies”.
Russia acquires many characteristics of a dictatorship after the serious deterioration that the country has suffered in the last year and that has led it to experience the largest drop internationally in the 2022 Democracy Index published by the British magazine The Economist. Russia’s score fell 0.96 points to 2.28 from 3.24 in 2021 and its world ranking fell from 124th (out of 167) to 146th, near the bottom of the world rankings.
“Russia recorded the biggest drop in score of any country in the world in 2022. Its invasion of Ukraine was accompanied by complete repression and censorship within the country. Russia has been on a trajectory away from democracy for a long time and now it is acquiring many of the characteristics of a dictatorship,” the media analysts explained in their annual report.
According to the report, the biggest setback in Russia occurs in the categories of political participation and civil liberties.
The magazine indicates that the regime drastically restricted civil liberties after the invasion of Ukraine, “further suppressing dissenting voices and eradicating the last remnants of any opposition or critical media outlets.”
“Anyone who participates in any form of protest, however small, risks not only a beating but also a long prison sentence,” he stresses.
The Economist also refers to the restrictions imposed in Russia on the use of the Internet and the expansion of lists of “foreign agents” that include NGOs, media and personalities and that have forced many dissidents to leave the country.
