EIU DEMOCRACY INDEX: Bangladesh again marked as hybrid regime

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EIU DEMOCRACY INDEX​

Bangladesh again marked as hybrid regime​

Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 23:50, Feb 10,2022

Bangladesh again marked as hybrid regime

The state of democracy remained unchanged in Bangladesh as the country ranked 75th for the second year in a row among 167 countries in the...

www.newagebd.net

The state of democracy remained unchanged in Bangladesh as the country ranked 75th for the second year in a row among 167 countries in the democracy index 2021.

The Economic Intelligence Unit of The Economist Group in the United Kingdom released the index on Thursday.
Bangladesh was also marked as a hybrid regime for the second year in a row with an overall score of 5.99 in 10, unchanged from the index released in 2020.

In the latest index, Bangladesh scored 7.42 in electoral process and pluralism, 6.07 in the functioning of government, 5.56 in political participation, 5.63 in political culture, and 5.29 in civil liberties – all out of 10.

Bangladesh slipped in political participation scoring 5.56 in 10 in the index 2021 compared to the score of 6.11 in the index 2020.

However, Bangladesh marked improvement in civil liberties scoring 5.29 out of 10 in the latest index compared to the score of 4.71 in the index 2020.

The EIU, which is the research wing of The Economist Group, prepared the index based on 60 indicators, grouped into five categories – electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

Countries were given a rating on a zero to 10 scale and the overall index was the average scores of five categories.

Each country was then grouped into four types of the regime, based on their average score – full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.

The average global scores fell from 5.37, out of 10 in the index 2020 to 5.28 in 2021, driven by regressions across all regions except for Eastern Europe.

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a major constraint on democracy, exacerbating existing negative trends and weaknesses, and presenting new challenges for democratic and non-democratic regimes alike.

Norway, New Zealand and Finland ranked first, second and third respectively while North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan stood at the bottom in 165th, 166th and 167th place respectively in the index 2021.