According to the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute’s report titled, “Democracy Report 2023: Defiance in the Face of Autocratization,” India has been ranked 97th in the Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) (2022) and 108th in the Electoral Democracy Index (EDI) (2022).
- Change over: In the previous year’s report of ‘Democracy Report 2022: Autocratisation Changing Nature’ India’s LDI and EDI rank were about 93 (2021) and 100 (2021) respectively.
- According to the report, India is falling behind and comes under the category of “Electoral Autocracies.”
Democracy Report 2023
i.The Democracy Report is based on a global dataset on democracy with over 31 million data points for 202 countries from 1789 to 2022.
ii.The LDI captures both liberal and electoral aspects of a democracy based on 71 indicators that comprise, Liberal Component Index (LCI), EDI, Egalitarian Component Index (ECI), Participatory Component Index (PCI), Deliberative Component Index (DCI).
- India acquired 90th rank in LCI, 123rd rank in ECI, 73rd position in PCI and 95th position in DCI.
iii.As democracy is defined as a rule by and for the people, the Democracy Report assesses democratic levels according to population size (as opposed to simple averages across a number of countries).
Alarming data from the report
i.The report listed India as one of the top 10 autocratizing countries in the last 10 years, placing it at Rank 108 and in the bottom 50% of the LDI.
- As per the report, India accounts for 7.2% of the global GDP, and it corresponds to one-third of the share of GDP generated by all electoral autocracies.
ii.The report also noted that autocratization appears to have significantly slowed down or paused in some countries, including India.
iii.India ranks significantly lower on the list than nations like Tanzania, Bolivia, Mexico, Singapore, and Nigeria.
iv.Pakistan fell two places to 106th in the LDI and 110th in the EDI.
v.In the LDI, the United States (US) is ranked 23, while Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) are positioned 24 and 20, respectively.
vi.As per the report, 72% of the world’s population – 5.7 billion people – now live in electoral or closed autocracies, which is an increase from 46% ten years ago.
Top 10 Democracies in The World: Country Scores for The LDI & EDI, 2022
| Country | Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Score | |
| Denmark | 1 | 0.89 |
| Sweden | 2 | 0.87 |
| Norway | 3 | 0.86 |
| Switzerland | 4 | 0.85 |
| Estonia | 5 | 0.85 |
| New Zealand | 6 | 0.83 |
| Belgium | 7 | 0.83 |
| Ireland | 8 | 0.82 |
| Costa Rica | 9 | 0.82 |
| Finland | 10 | 0.82 |
| India | 97 | 0.31 |
| Country | Electoral Democracy Index (EDI) 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Score | |
| Denmark | 1 | 0.92 |
| Switzerland | 2 | 0.9 |
| Sweden | 3 | 0.9 |
| Norway | 4 | 0.9 |
| Estonia | 5 | 0.89 |
| Belgium | 6 | 0.89 |
| Ireland | 7 | 0.89 |
| New Zealand | 8 | 0.89 |
| Luxembourg | 9 | 0.88 |
| France | 10 | 0.88 |
| India | 108 | 0.4 |
Recent Related News:
In January 2023, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution by consensus titled ‘Education for Democracy’ that reaffirms the right of ‘education for all’ and contributes to strengthening democracy. The resolution is co-sponsored by India.
About the V-Dem Institute:
The V-Dem Institute is an independent research institute founded by Professor Staffan I. Lindberg that studies the qualities of government.
Founded – 2014
Headquarters – Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
