The general state of democracy in the United States fell last year, according to an annual ranking published on Wednesday by The Economist’s Intelligence Unit, which cited the continued erosion of confidence in the country’s institutions.
The US maintained its position as the 25th most democratic nation among 167 countries analyzed, but remains in the category of “failed democracy” after being demoted from the “total democracy” group in 2016, said the report.
Norway was the highest ranked democracy, according to The Economist.
The report measures five main categories – electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of the government; political participation; and political culture – and scores each one.
The overall US score of 7.92 was lower than the previous year’s 7.96. Norway’s score was 9.81 in 2020.
“The overall performance of the US is hampered by a number of weaknesses, including extremely low levels of confidence in political institutions and parties; profound dysfunction in the functioning of the government; growing threats to freedom of expression; and a degree of social polarization that makes consensus on any issue almost impossible to reach, ”said the report.
The report cited efforts to President Trump
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These efforts, according to the report, follow growing trends in other countries “to challenge the outcome of elections and referendums and seek to discredit the outcome by alleging outside interference and giving credence to conspiracy theories”.
The U.S. has improved its score on political participation, however, as the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice movements and other major events generated a high level of participation in the 2020 elections.
In addition to the US findings, the report recorded the lowest average score for global democracy since the index was first published in 2006. The Economist attributed the decline largely to “government restrictions on individual and civil liberties that have occurred around the world in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “
“Across the world in 2020, citizens experienced the greatest setback in individual freedoms ever undertaken by governments during peacetime,” says the report. “Most people concluded, based on the evidence about a new deadly disease, that avoiding a catastrophic loss of life justified a temporary loss of freedom.”
As of Wednesday, COVID-19 had infected more than 104 million people worldwide, with approximately 2.2 million killed as a result of the virus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.