The latest Freedom in the World report from Freedom House shows that global democracy faced a tough year in 2020.
According to Freedom House, a global advocacy organization that works to advance freedom and democracy, 2020 was the fifteenth consecutive year in which global freedom declined.
In 2020, ‘democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny’.
Countries are ranked as either ‘free’, ‘partly free’, or ‘unfree’.
In 2020 the number of free countries was 82, the lowest level since 2005. The number of ‘partly free’ countries was 59 (58 in 2005), while the number of unfree countries was 45 in 2005 but had now risen to 54.
The organisation also produces a ‘Democracy Gap,’ an aggregate score derived by subtracting the number of countries in which the quality of democracy improved from the number of countries which saw their score decline.
Last year this gap was 45 – the number of countries in which the quality of democracy declined was 73 while 28 saw an improvement, giving a score of 45. This is the largest ‘Democracy Gap’ in the past 15 years.
Of some concern will be that India is now considered ‘partly free’ by Freedom House, rather than ‘free,’ as Hindu nationalism grows and religious minorities, particularly Muslims, are scapegoated for many of the country’s problems.
South Africa is still considered ‘free’ by the organisation, despite the heavy-handed and militarised lockdown implemented last year. The only other mainland African countries ranked ‘free’ by Freedom House are Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, and Tunisia.
[Image: Ignat Arapov on Unsplash]