Democracy Report

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Context: India Classified as an ‘Electoral Autocracy’ in Annual Democracy Report 2022

Details:

The V-Dem Institute at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg has released their annual democracy report.
The title of the report is ‘Democracy Report 2022: Autocratisation Changing Nature?’
The report classified the countries into 4 categories based on their score in the Liberal Democratic Index (LDI):
- Liberal Democracy
- Electoral Democracy
- Electoral Autocracy
- Closed Autocracy
It classifies India as an electoral autocracy ranking it 93rd on the LDI, out of 179 countries.
- India is one of the top ten ‘autocratisers’ in the world.
One of the main reasons for Autocratisation is “toxic polarization”, a dominant trend in 40 countries, as opposed to 5 countries that showed rising polarization in 2011.
According to the report, the level of democracy enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2021 is down to 1989 levels, with the democratic gains of the post-Cold War period eroding rapidly in the last few years.

About the V-Dem report’s methodology:

Since key features of democracy, such as judicial independence, are not directly measurable, and to rule out distortions due to subjective judgments.
- V-Dem uses aggregate expert judgments to produce estimates of critical concepts.
It gathers data from a pool of over 3,700 country experts who provide judgments on different concepts and cases.
The V-Dem’s measurement model algorithmically estimates both the degree to which an expert is reliable relative to other experts, and the degree to which their perception differs from other experts to come up with the most accurate values for every parameter.

Parameters used to assess the Status of a Democracy:

Electoral dimension (free and fair elections) and liberal principle that a democracy must protect “individual and minority rights”.
The LDI captures both liberal and electoral aspects of a democracy based on 71 indicators that make up the Liberal Component Index (LCI) and the Electoral Democracy Index (EDI).
The EDI considers indicators that guarantee free and fair elections such as freedom of expression and freedom of association.
The LDI also uses:
- An Egalitarian Component Index (to what extent different social groups are equal).
- Participatory Component Index (health of citizen groups, civil society organizations).
- Deliberative Component Index (whether political decisions are taken through public reasoning focused on common good or through emotional appeals, solidarity attachments, coercion).

Key findings of the report:

Sweden topped the LDI index. Denmark, Norway, Costa Rica and New Zealand make up the top 5 in liberal democracy rankings.
Autocratisation is spreading rapidly, with a record of 33 countries autocratising.
2021 saw a record 6 coups, resulting in 4 new autocracies: Chad, Guinea, Mali and Myanmar.
The Number of liberal democracies stood at 42 in 2012, their number has shrunk to their lowest level in over 25 years, with just 34 countries and 13% of the world population living in liberal democracies.
Closed autocracies, or dictatorships, rose from 25 to 30 between 2020 and 2021.
The world today has 89 democracies and 90 autocracies.
Electoral autocracy remains the most common regime type, accounting for 60 countries and 44% of the world population or 3.4 billion people.
Electoral democracies were the second most common regime, accounting for 55 countries and 16% of the world population.
The report identified “misinformation” as a key tool deployed by autocratising governments to sharpen polarization and shape domestic and international opinion.
Repression of civil society and censorship of media were other favored tools of autocratic regimes.
The report also found that eroding autonomy of the electoral management body in 25 countries.

Key findings about India:

With the ranking of 93rd in the LDI, India figures in the “bottom 50%” of countries.
In South Asia, India is ranked below Sri Lanka (88), Nepal (71), and Bhutan (65) and above Pakistan (117) in the LDI.
One of the main reasons behind Autocratisation is “toxic polarization”; defined as a phenomenon that erodes respect of counter-arguments.