Norway is the world’s most democratic country according to ‘The Economist’ magazine’s ‘democracy index’. Italy is falling sharply, and in the United States too, the trend is going in the wrong direction.
With 9.87 points out of a possible 10, Norway tops the 167 countries that are included in the index. Iceland is just behind showed The Economist’s democracy index.
Sweden follows in third place as the most democratic EU country, followed by New Zealand. Denmark, Canada, Ireland, Finland, Australia, and Switzerland.
These ten countries make up the group which, with more than 9 points, gets the term “full democracy”. In the same category, but in the score range of 8-9, are the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, the UK, Austria, Malta, Spain, and Uruguay.
At the opposite end of the scale are Afghanistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, and North Korea.
Turkey has fallen most since 2017. Georgia and
Italy have also fallen sharply. For the USA, the overview shows a steady decline since 2006.
From 2016 onwards, the country has ended up in the category of “deficient democracy”, the same label given to France and Italy, among others.
Russia ends up in the category of “authoritarian regime”, in company with, among others, Azerbaijan and Iran wrote the Swedish website “Europa portal”.
Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are highlighted as countries where democracy has been strengthened most through last year.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
