EIU Democracy Index Released... South Korea Ranked 23rd as a 'Full Democracy'

[Image source= AFP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] In the 'Democracy Index 2020' released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on the 2nd (local time), South Korea ranked 23rd out of 167 countries surveyed.

The EIU is an economic analysis institute affiliated with the British current affairs weekly magazine The Economist. South Korea received a score of 8.01 out of 10.

Although South Korea's ranking remained the same as last year, its score increased by 0.01 points, joining the ranks of 'Full democracy' after five years as a 'Flawed democracy.'

Since 2006, the EIU has evaluated 167 countries based on five categories: election process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties, to calculate the level of democratic development. Based on this, countries scoring above 8 points are classified as 'Full democracies,' those scoring over 6 up to 8 as 'Flawed democracies,' over 4 up to 6 as 'Hybrid regimes,' and below 4 as 'Authoritarian regimes.'

South Korea has been consistently rated as a full democracy since 2008 but was classified as a 'Flawed democracy' from 2015 to 2019.

South Korea scored 9.17 in election process and pluralism, 8.21 in functioning of government, 7.22 in political participation, 7.5 in political culture, and 7.94 in civil liberties.

North Korea received an overall average score of 1.08, ranking last as in the previous year. North Korea has never escaped the bottom rank since 2006.

In this year's report, the number of countries by category was 23 full democracies, 52 flawed democracies, 35 hybrid regimes, and 57 authoritarian regimes.

Nordic countries dominated the top ranks. Norway (9.81 points) ranked first, followed by Iceland (9.37 points), Sweden (9.26 points), New Zealand (9.25 points), Canada (9.24 points), Finland (9.20 points), and Denmark (9.15 points).

Scores of major Asian countries were Taiwan (8.94 points, 11th), Japan (8.13 points, 21st), South Korea, Malaysia (7.19 points, 39th), India (6.61 points, 53rd), and the Philippines (6.56 points, 55th). Taiwan improved its ranking by 31 places compared to last year, achieving the greatest progress among the surveyed countries.

The United States scored 7.92 points, ranking 25th overall and classified as a 'Flawed democracy.' The U.S. was listed as a 'Full democracy' from 2006 to 2015 but has been rated as a 'Flawed democracy' since 2016, during the latter part of Barack Obama's administration and throughout Donald Trump's four-year term.

The average score of all countries surveyed in 2020 was 5.37 points, marking the lowest since the index began. About 70% of the 167 countries, or 116 countries, saw their scores decline compared to the previous year.

The EIU diagnosed this as a "serious deterioration of democracy," analyzing that it was mainly due to countries restricting individual freedoms as part of their COVID-19 response measures.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.