State of

Democracy
around the World

Presented By:
Mahdiya Baktyer Ahmed (191 011 097)
&
Sajid Hassan (181 011 016)
 What is Democracy?

Origin: Athens
 Greek word dēmokratía (demos “common
people” kratos “strength”) – “rule by
people”
Democracy is a form of government in
which people have the authority to choose
their governing
Aristotle
legislation.
Rule by the best over the rest
Objection: Democracy
undermined the rule of law
GSoD Framework
Global State of Democracy
attributes/indices:

The GSoD Indices measure trends

in democratic development for 158
countries subdivided into 6 main
regions
 Africa

Expansion of democracy
Democratic aspirations remain
strong:
Elections have become the norm
rather than the exception
New third-wave democracies
-
 Africa

22% of countries in the region are non

democracies
Conduct of elections remain flawed
Conflict and civil war persists
Gender Inequality
Severe democratic decline in several
countries
Corruption prevails
 The Middle
East

2018: Just 2 democracies

Resilient democracy in Iran
Improvement on Gender Equality
- Iran: Introduced quotas for women
- KSA: Appointment of women in the Shura
Council
Allowed access to government services such
as education and healthcare 
 The Middle
East
Least democratic region
-7 countries are non-
democracies, 3 countries are
Arab Uprising hybrid regimes, and 2 are
classified as democracies
-All for Naught

Resilient non-democracies
-Six of the most persistent non-
democracies in the world:
Bahrain, Iran, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Syria and the UAE.
Latin America & The
Caribbean

3rd most democratic region in the world

-1975: 5 countries were democracies, 2018:
still same
Heterogeneous democratic landscape
-3/5 top 5 countries with the highest level of
Representative Government
-Most advances in political Gender Equality
Latin America & The
Caribbean

Cuba: Persistent non-democratic

regime for the past 4 decades
Venezuela: Most democratically
ailing country
Democratic
backsliding/erosion/both
Highly unequal access to political
power
Decline in support for democracy
 North America

 Decline in the USA’s Clean Elections

 Rank: 1st most democratic region
 Civil Liberties and Freedom of
 High levels of Clean Elections,
Expression are on the decline
Access to Justice, Gender
 Freedom of Movement and
Equality, Civil Society
Freedom of Religion are under
participation
threat
-Both Canada and USA are in the top  Corruption continues to undermine
 Asia and The Pacific

Significant democratic expansion in

the past four decades
- The number of democracies has doubled
- reduction of non-democracies
Resilient older democracies
Of all the early third-wave
democracies South Korea and Taiwan
have made the most democratic
advances
The region’s democracies come in
many shapes and forms
 Asia and The Pacific

40% of the countries in Asia and the

Pacific do not have democratically
elected governments.
One of the regions most affected by
democratic erosion
Has not kept the same pace as the rest
of the world on Gender Equality
Country Since Current
Several countries in the region have State

experienced democratic fragility Bangladesh 2014 Hybridity

Pakistan 2018 Hybridity
Thailand 2019 Military rule
 Europe

2nd democratic region in the world

-93%of countries classified as democracies
Largest share of third-wave
democracies
 Of the 21 democracies in the world
with high scores on all five GSoD
attributes, 14 are in Europe.
Armenia - hybrid regime in 2017 to a
democracy in 2018
 Europe

Decline in the quality of its democracies in

the last 10 years
56% of democracies in Europe suffer from
democratic erosion
General malaise within mainstream political
parties across most of Europe
Europe has recently experienced a populist
wave.
 Conclusion:
Global Perspective

Democratic performance

The world is more remains weak

democratic than it has ever Democratic erosion is on the rise

been There are increasing signs of

Democratic progress democratic backsliding

continues worldwide Some democracies are becoming

Democracy has proven increasingly hybridized

resilient over time Non-democratic regimes have

persisted and deepened their
autocratization
Thank You!