The Economist Democracy Index: Bulgaria ahead of 4 Countries in the EU

Our country is 46th out of 167 countries "Democracy in ... dies!" Or "Victory of democracy in ...". Every day in world media and social networks there are generalizations about trends and events in one or another country. Where do we judge whether they are true or not? For the real picture of democracy in 167 countries around the world, a large, in-depth and reliable source is the annual Democracy Index of the respected British Economist Intelligence Unit. It is an analytical unit to the Economist Group.

The new annual report for 2018, titled "Me Too," was published a few days ago. It reports, for example, a slight decline in the quality of democracy in the United States - from 7.98 in 2017 to 7.96 last year. In Russia, however, the decline for 12 months is significantly higher - from 3.17 to 2.94. Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 10. The most democratic country in the world in 2018 is Norway with a score of 9.87. Followed by Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark.

Germany is 13th, followed by the UK. France is far behind - 29th. It is no surprise that the most undemocratic country is North Korea - 1.08. The average value of the quality of democracy in the world in 2018 is 5.48 and it remains unchanged from 2017. For the first time in three years, democracy in the world has remained robust and the authors of the study have summarized this as "stopping the decline of democracy". Which, however, may be rather a pause, grimly noted by the Economist.

Power leaders around the world often copied their tactics and management styles, writes the Economist report. It also emphasized the strong polarization of society in the United States. And also on the trend: in some parts of Europe democracy is sick. Italy, for example, falls from 21st to 33rd in the...