Romania goes down in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index

Romania ranks 61st in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index for 2016, the same as Mongolia but down two places compared to the previous year, reports local News.ro. The index ranks countries according to the democratic regime’s strength, based on five general categories, namely free and fair elections, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. Romania scored 6.62 in the 2016 index, down from 6.64 in the previous two years, being included in the “flawed democracy” category. Other countries in this category are Italy, France, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, and even the U.S., which is no longer a “full democracy” in this year’s index. The U.S. score fell from 8.05 in 2015 to 7.98 in 2016. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s index, the Romanians have the lowest score for political participation and political culture – 5.00. On the other hand, the biggest success for Romania is the assurance of a fair electoral process and political pluralism, for which it receive a score of 9.97, while the functioning of the government remained unchanged, with a score of 5.71. Romania lost two positions for not completely respecting the civil liberties, this index decreasing from 8.35 to 8.24 in just one year. Norway, Iceland, and Sweden top the ranking, being included in the “full democracy” category. The Norwegians have the highest score of 9.93. On the other hand, the last three places are occupied by Chad, Syria, and North Korea. Romania sees slight improvement in Transparency International’s corruption index Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com