LONDON – Montenegro improved its democracy in 2023, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina saw no change, while Albania and North Macedonia saw a decline, according to the 2023 Democracy Index released last week by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
On a scale of 0 to 10, Montenegro scored 6.67, the best score in the Western Balkans. It is followed by Serbia with 6.33, Albania with 6.28, North Macedonia with 6.03 and Bosnia and Herzegovina with 5.0. Kosovo is not included in the index.
To qualify as a “full democracy,” a country must have a score between 8 and 10, while a score between 6 and 8 indicates an “imperfect democracy.” Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia are “imperfect democracies”, while Bosnia and Herzegovina is a “hybrid regime”, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit classification.
As a result, Montenegro is ranked 52nd in the world, rising 9 places compared to 2022. Serbia is ranked 64th, which is also an improvement of 4 places, although its overall score has not changed, meaning that the movement is due to changes in other countries. country scores.
Albania is ranked 66th in the world, two places behind Serbia, while North Macedonia shares 72nd place with Papua New Guinea. Bosnia and Herzegovina ranks 94th in the world in terms of democracy index.
Montenegro increased its score by 0.22, making it one of the “best performers” in 2023, alongside Benin, Tanzania, Angola and Malta, according to the index.
Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina saw no change in their scores compared to 2022.
Meanwhile, Albania lost 0.13 points compared to 2022, while North Macedonia recorded a slightly smaller decline of 0.07.
The report does not provide individual explanations for changes in country scores.
The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties.
The average global index score fell to 5.23, from 5.29 in 2022. This is part of the general trend of regression and stagnation in recent years, and marks a new low since the launch of the index in 2006.
“According to our measure of democracy, almost half of the world’s population lives in some form of democracy (45.4%). Only 7.8% reside in a “full democracy”, compared to 8.9% in 2015; this percentage fell after the United States was downgraded from a “full democracy” to an “imperfect democracy” in 2016. More than a third of the world’s population lives under authoritarian rule (39.4%), a proportion which has increased in recent years. years,” the report said.
