Source: The Hindu
Manifest pedagogy: The topic can be placed under two disciplines
- Polity and Governance
- IR
It can be asked as a Prelims question in Polity where as in IR while writing an answer on India and its democratic credentials the above fact can be used.
In news: India has fallen to 51st position in EIU’s Democracy Index
Placing it in syllabus: Democracy index
Dimensions:
- About the index
- Reasons for India’s lower ranking
Content: The list was topped by Norway (1st place) followed by Iceland (2nd) and Sweden (3rd). North Korea is at the bottom at 167th place.
About the index:
- Democracy Index global ranking is released by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
- It intends to measure the state of democracy in 167 countries.
- The index was first published in 2006.
- It is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture.
- The index categorises each country in one of four regime types: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.
Full democracies are nations where civil liberties and fundamental political freedoms are not only respected but also reinforced by a political culture conducive to the thriving of democratic principles.
Flawed democracies are nations where elections are fair and free and basic civil liberties are honoured but may have faults in other democratic aspects including underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics and issues in the functioning of governance.
Hybrid regimes are nations with regular electoral frauds, preventing them from being fair and free democracy. These nations commonly have governments that apply pressure on political opposition, non-independent judiciaries, widespread corruption, harassment and pressure placed on the media, anaemic rule of law.
Authoritarian regimes are nations where political pluralism has vanished or is extremely limited. These nations are often absolute monarchies or dictatorships.
Economist Intelligence unit (EIU):
- EIU is the research and analysis division of the Economist Group.
- It provides forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis, such as monthly country reports, five-year country economic forecasts, country risk service reports, and industry reports.
- It was founded in 1946, headquartered in London, England.
Reasons for India’s lower ranking:
- India’s overall score has fallen from 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in 2019.
- Erosion of civil liberties in the country is the main reason cited for low ranking.
- India is included in the “flawed democracy” category (score is greater than 6 and less than or equal to 8).
(((Full democracy (scores greater than 8); Hybrid regime (scores greater than 4 and less than or equal to 6); Authoritarian regime (scores less than or equal to 4)))
Rankings of other countries:
China – 153
Brazil – 52
Russia – 134
Pakistan – 108
Sri Lanka – 69
Bangladesh – 80
