According to the latest Democracy Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), representative democracy has been on the decline throughout the world.
This means that both emerging democracies as well as the established ones are on the retreat in the face of autocratic push from rulers who believe in the rule of force, not law. The EIU report says that more than one-third (39.2 percent) of the world population now lives under authoritarian rule, a share that has been creeping up in recent years. It classifies 60 countries as authoritarian regimes that tend to become even more authoritarian with the passage of time.
The Democracy Index report is based on a detailed analysis of global trends in democracy within 165 independent states and two territories. The index examines countries based on five areas: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. Each country was categorised into four kinds of regimes: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime or authoritarian regime, based on its score.
The EIU study is titled ‘What’s wrong with representative democracy?’, and it finds democracy in decline around the world. The decline in the global index was attributed to “further worsening in the average score for the ‘authoritarian regimes.’ This trend of recent years appears to confirm that ‘authoritarian regimes’ tend to become even more authoritarian as time goes on.”
As per the EIU’s region-wise analysis, the average index score in Asia and Australasia declined from 5.41 to 5.31 for the sixth consecutive time in 2024. While Bangladesh suffered the biggest regression, South Korea and Pakistan also showed significant declines in the study. To quote the report, “Bangladesh, South Korea and Pakistan were the worst performers, falling in the global rankings by 25, 10 and six places, respectively.”
More than half of the world’s population in over 70 countries held elections last year, including Pakistan, according to the study. Problems such as rigging were highlighted as being especially common within autocracies. The report says: “In many of these, including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Iran, Mozam¬bique, Pakistan, Russia and Venezuela, authoritarian regimes used every tool at their disposal to remain in power. Elections in South Asia in 2024 were marred by fraud and violence. In Pakistan’s general election in February, there were allegations of political repression and interference by the authorities.”
Sadly, the future holds no promise of improvement in the future. “The prospects for democracy in South Asia remain uncertain,” according to the report. The Director for the Democracy Index, Joan Hoey said: “While autocracies seem to be gaining strength, as shown by the index trend since 2006, the world’s democracies are struggling.”
For Pakistan there are no words of comfort in the Democracy Index report. Pakistan dropped 6 points to rank 124th in the global ranking with an overall score of 2.84, categorising it as an ‘authoritarian regime’. Pertinently, the EIU report came days after Freedom House, a Washington-based think tank that tracks democracy and threats to freedom around the world, ranked Pakistan as “partly free”.
Pakistan has the basic democratic institutional structure in place, but the system is not fully functional. There are many negative pressures working against democracy in Pakistan. Over the years the principle of separation of powers, an essential feature of democratic order, evolved to maintain balance of power and harmony among the three pillars of the state, namely parliament, executive and the judiciary has been compromised. There is sharp erosion of freedom of press and independence of judiciary in recent years.
The recently enacted Prevent of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) bill, 2025 has drawn widespread criticism from journalists’ unions and civil society organisations in the country. On the other hand, the complaints regarding the conduct of last year’s general elections have not been addressed as a result of which the legitimacy of the incumbent regime remains in question.
Along with democracy, basic human rights in many countries are also under attack. Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (HR), stated during the annual HR Council’s opening address that the international system is in an upheaval, with human rights being suffocated in a world increasingly dominated by authoritarians. Far right parties which are winning elections in many European countries mark another disturbing trend.
In recent years, the unipolar international system has seen persistent interference in the affairs of many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Such blatant interference has left a trail of devastation in its wake, for instance in Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria. To sum up, these are challenging times for democracy but its proponents must continue their struggle for justice, come what may.