Turkey ranks 103rd among 167 countries in global democracy index

Duvar English

Turkey ranked 103rd of 167 nations in the Democracy Index 2022- a list of the most and least democratic countries in the world - said The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a news and general affairs publication, in its annual report on Feb. 2.

The ranking system is based on five criteria: electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of the government, political participation, democratic political culture, and civil liberties. In the list, countries are classified according to their scores as "full democracy," "flawed democracy," "hybrid regime," and "authoritarian regime."

Turkey ranked 103rd out of 167 countries on the list and was defined as a "hybrid regime" with a score of 4.35 out of 10, same score as 2021.

The EIU categorized Turkey as the only “hybrid regime” in western Europe -- the second lowest after “authoritarian regime.”

While Afghanistan received 0.32 points in the last spot, Norway received 9.88 points in the first spot.

Turkey received 3.5 over 10 for electoral process and pluralism, 5.0 for the functioning of government, 5.56 for political participation, 5.63 for democratic political culture, and 2.06 for civil liberties.

Turkey had achieved its highest figure in 2012 with 5.76 points in the report, which has been published since 2006. Turkey's score was above 5 until 2017.

The report indicated that Turkey’s democratic values have been continuing to erode, where "the elections are generally not free and just, the media is subjected to censorship, the rule of law is very weak, and corruption is widespread."

Criticizing the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the report said Turkey's decreasing trend shows the "increasing authoritarianism of the autocratic president."

"Turkey’s point did not change. Erdoğan increased the pressure on the media, opposition, and public in 2022, although the country has very low points in these categories; hence, many of the indicators cannot go lower," it added.

Additionally, the report mentioned the disinformation law and new election law as examples of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) growing authoritarianism. The disinformation law was enacted as a tool to particularly control social media and opponents as it rules jail time for those who “spread false information.”

Also, the new election law enabled AKP to appoint pro-government judges to election boards and made it more difficult for small parties to enter parliament through electoral coalitions according to the report.

45.3% of the world's population lives in democratic countries, while 36.9% of the population lives under authoritarian regimes. The global point scored 5.29 over 10 without any significant change from the previous years, signifying the worldwide democratic stagnation that has been experienced in recent years.