Globally, almos 8 billion people live under a wide variety of political and cultural circumstances. Those circumstances can be measured. The sliding scale is between free and not free with the subtext that democracy lies on the one end and authoritarianism, on the other.

According to the Democracy Index report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the state of democracy around the globe is at its lowest point since the index began in 2006, blamed in part on the pandemic restrictions that saw many countries struggling to balance public health with personal freedom.

Eastern Europe paints a different picture, where there is not a single full democracy. Three countries - Moldova, Montenegro and North Macedonia - were upgraded from being considered hybrid regimes to flawed democracies. Ukraine’s score declined, becoming a hybrid region. Russia’s score also declined, keeping the authoritarian regime status. It is important to note here that this report by the EIU was published before the invasion of Ukraine began, and the war will almost certainly impact scores in next year’s report.

Authoritarian regimes are nations where political pluralism is nonexistent or limited; the population is ruled by absolute monarchies or dictatorships; infringements and abuses of civil liberties are common; elections are not fair of free - if they occur at all; media is state-owned or controlled directly or indirectly by the ruling regime; the judiciary system is not independent; criticism of the government is censored.

#TheCheckpoints - 22.05.2022