** EIU’s annual index suggests an end to the democracy recession**
Grumbling about the health of democracy can sound abstract. But its decline shows up in wars, coups , contested elections and curbs on civil liberties across the world. EIU, our sister organisation, has tracked that slide since 2006. But the latest update to its democracy index suggests a modest break in the trend: the scores of nearly three-quarters of countries held steady or improved over the past year, and the global index rose by 0.02 points—one of the biggest increases since 2012.
EIU grades 167 countries out of ten according to the state of their democracy, and sorts them into four camps: full and flawed democracies, and hybrid and authoritarian regimes. By that measure, Norway remains the world’s most democratic country—a position it has held for the past 16 years. New Zealand ranks second; the next four places are filled by the other Nordic countries. Most of this year’s improvements came in the middle of the table.
Source: https://www.economist.com/interactive/democracy-index-2025
I’d be quiet about that on this forum. Americans fervently tell us they are NOT (definitely NOT) one of those dastardly democracies which they define as two wolves and a sheep voting for what’s for dinner. Sadly they do vote, but it’s not that democracy thingy, mind you. It’s the even more loosely defined constitutional republic.
