Global freedoms have hit a ‘dismal’ record low - with pandemic restrictions making things worse, report says

The world’s overall score fell to 5.28 out of 10, setting “another dismal record” with the lowest rating since the EIU started producing the index in 2006. It was also the biggest annual decline since 2010. The survey found that just 6.4 percent of the world lived in a “full democracy” last year, while more than a third lived under authoritarian rule — with a large share of those in 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.

“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.”

The pandemic has also exposed inequalities in health care, weaknesses in economic safety nets and government mismanagement in countries trying to curb a virus that has killed millions of people. It has also opened the door for governments to exploit the health crisis to suppress political participation.

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While North America remained the highest-ranked region in the EIU survey, Canada saw “a notable decline,” with pandemic restrictions helping to push the country out of the top 10, the report said, adding that survey data showed “a worrying trend of disaffection among Canada’s citizens with traditional democratic institutions and increased levels of support for non-democratic alternatives.”

It found that just 10.4 percent of Canadians surveyed felt they had “a great deal” of freedom of choice and control. Meanwhile, almost 14 percent of Canadians expressed a preference for military rule, while more than half felt that “rule by experts or a technocratic government” was “very good” or “fairly good.”

The United States, which received a “flawed democracy” classification, fell one spot to number 26 “as political and cultural divisions have become more entrenched.” However, the report also noted that Americans had become much more engaged in politics in recent years, and “a series of high-impact events in 2020—including a politicised pandemic and a presidential election that the two main political parties framed in existential terms—boosted political engagement and participation.”

Of all the countries, 21 were classified as “full democracies,” while 53 went into the “flawed democracies” category. At the top of the list were Norway, New Zealand and Finland. At the very bottom were Afghanistan, Myanmar, and North Korea.

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