The state of democracy worldwide fell to a record low in 2021, largely due to pandemic restrictions that have led to many nations placing a public health emergency of arguable severity over personal freedoms, according to a new report released Thursday which rated 167 countries based on various measures including civil liberties and electoral processes.
According to the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), less than half the world’s population live under some form of democracy.
Overall, the world’s score fell to 5.28 out of 10, setting “another dismal record,” with the EIU’s lowest rating since they began the index in 2006, according to the Washington Post.
The annual decline was the largest since 2010, with the survey finding that just 6.4% of the world lived in a “full democracy” last year, while over 1/3 lied under authoritarian rule – with much of that coming from China.
The decline did not start with the pandemic, but it has compounded negative trends. From lockdowns to travel bans, the coronavirus led to “an unprecedented withdrawal of civil liberties among developed democracies and authoritarian regimes alike,” the report said. -WaPo
“It has led to the normalization of emergency powers, which have tended to stay on the statute books, and accustomed citizens to a huge extension of state power over large areas of public and personal life,” reads the report, which adds that the pandemic has exposed inequalities in health care, government mismanagement, and weaknesses in economic ‘safety nets.’
The pandemic has also opened the door for governments to exploit the health crisis in order to suppress political participation.
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