Bangladesh climbs two notches up

Bangladesh has ranked 73rd in the world democracy index while Norway was on top with a score of 9.81.

The South Asian nation posted a score of 5.99 out of 10 in 2022, unchanged from the previous year, according to the report published by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on Thursday.

In the region of Asia and Australasia, Bangladesh ranked 15th while neighbouring India ranked 8th, according to the latest edition.

The report also revealed that the long decline of global democracy has somewhat stalled in 2022.

The Democracy Index ranks nations on five parameters: electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.

Norway retained the top spot in the index, followed by New Zealand in second place. Meanwhile, Afghanistan and Myanmar remained in the bottom two places, with North Korea just above them.

Bangladesh was categorised under hybrid regime while India was categorised as a flawed democracy.

The developed countries of western Europe dominate among the world’s “full democracies”, accounting for 14 of the total of 24 in 2022, reveals the report made public recently.

Canada is the sole “full democracy” in North America, as the US continues to languish as a “flawed democracy”, where it was relegated in 2016.

Asia and Australasia has five “full democracies”, including three Asian ones--Japan, South Korea and Taiwan-- alongside Australia and New Zealand.

Three Latin American countries are classed as “full democracies”--Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay-- as is one African country, Mauritius.