NEW YORK: Pakistan was placed at eighth place in the category of world’s least democratic places, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2021.
According to Bloomberg, of the 167 territories surveyed, just 21 were deemed to be full democracies, representing 6.4pc of the world’s population, while 53 fell into the “flawed democracies” category.
Other states included in least democratic places along with Pakistan were: Afghanistan at the first place (as the last place first), Myanmar on the second place, North Korea third, Laos fourth, China fifth, Cambodia sixth, Vietnam seventh, Pakistan, as mentioned earlier, eighth, Nepal ninth and Hong Kong stood at the 10th place.
According to the report, the percentage of the world’s population living under some sort of democracy tumbled last year to 45.7 per cent from 49.4pc a year earlier. Topping the list were Norway, New Zealand and Finland, while the UK ranked 18th. The US, which was given a flawed democracy classification, fell one spot to number 26.
The EIU said the results continued to reflect the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Citing measures such as lockdowns and travel restrictions, the report said the pandemic had “resulted in an unprecedented withdrawal of civil liberties among developed democracies and authoritarian regimes alike”.
“It has led to the normalisation of emergency powers, which have tended to stay on the statute books, and accustomed citizens to a huge extension of state power over large areas of public and personal life,” the report added. “The creeping authoritarianism that has accompanied the pandemic raises questions about whether, in what circumstances, and for how
ong, governments and citizens are prepared to undermine democratic rights in the cause of public health.”
Regionally, Latin America saw the biggest decline in scores, with seven countries falling down the rankings between 10 and 20 places, while Asia gained three “full democracies” — Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The world’s top 10 most democratic places were: Norway, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Ireland, Taiwan, Australia and Switzerland.