Why in news?
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) recently released its report, “The Global State of Democracy Index (GSoD)”.
What is the report on?
- The report tried to evaluate the state of democracy in the world by looking at the trends in democratisation from 1975 to 2017.
- The study covers a variety of important indicators such as
- representative government
- fundamental rights
- checks on the government
- impartial administration
- participatory engagement
What are the highlights?
- Representative government - India and Sri Lanka have maintained relatively high scores in this regard.
- On the other hand, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan have had periods of non-elected regimes.
- However, the general trend in South Asia has been positive.
- Fundamental rights - South Asia's score matches that of Asia Pacific but it is slightly below the global average.
- At the country level, Afghanistan and Nepal have seen the most improvement.
- Sri Lanka and Pakistan saw a slight decline in this parameter in the 1970s and 1980s.
- India’s score has been stable since the late 1970s, but a decline has been observed since 2015.
- Gender equality - South Asia, in general, shows a steady improvement in gender equality.
- Nepal fared better than its counterparts.
- However, India’s score has been getting low since 2003.
- Checks on government - South Asia’s score witnessed a steady increase from 1975 to 1994.
- Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan have shown improvement in this indicator.
- Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka have remained relatively stable with scores in line with the global average.
- Impartial administration - South Asia follows both the regional and global trends with no significant change, with the exception of improvements in Nepal.
- However, the sub-index “absence of corruption” shows a worrying tendency in South Asia as the region has the lowest scores in the world.
- Personal integrity and security - South Asia’s scores for electoral participation are in line with the global average but are slightly below the Asia Pacific average.
- Since 1977, India scores well below the world average in this parameter.
- However, a slight increase in voter participation, along with Sri Lanka, was witnessed recently.
- In all, the report stresses on the following indicator for popularity of democracies:
- transparency in political processes
- accountability of elected representatives
- basic freedoms for all citizens
- equal rights for women and minorities
- high rates of voter participation
- On the other hand, corruption, nepotism and unemployment make people lose faith in democracy.
How does India fare in the report?
- The report says that India had done moderately well on all the above mentioned indicators.
- The Election Commission’s Systematic Voters Education for Electoral Participation Programme has played an important role in conducting free and fair elections in the country.
- Also, an independent judiciary keeps a check on the government and ensure a transparent and accountable system.
- India witnessed drastic increase in “Civil society participation” between 1978 and 2012.
- But after this period, it declined drastically, affecting deliberative decision making in the country.
- On “media integrity”, though India fared better than the global and South Asian average between 1994 and 2012, the country’s score has fallen in 2017.
- There has been a significant dip in the country’s record on civil liberties, personal integrity and security, freedom of association, media integrity, gender equality and basic welfare.
What is the way forward?
- Though India holds the highest rating among South Asian democracies, its performances on several yardsticks makes it a flawed democracy.
- Democracy does not merely mean voting rights for people, but rather empowering people by granting them equality.
- Thus there must be serious introspection among all stakeholders to make the world’s largest democracy the world’s greatest.
Source: The Indian Express