The overall state of democracy in the United States declined last year, according to an annual ranking released Wednesday by The information unit of the economist, who cited the continuing erosion of trust in the country’s institutions.
The United States has retained its 25th most democratic nation in 167 countries, but remains in the “flawed democracy” category after being demoted from the “full democracy” group in 2016, said the report.
Norway was the highest democracy, according to The Economist.
The report measures five main categories – the electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; government functioning; political participation; and political culture – and assign scores to each.
The US overall score of 7.92 fell from 7.96 the previous year. 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 trust in institutions and political parties; profound dysfunction in government functioning; increasing threats to freedom of expression; and a degree of societal polarization that makes consensus on any issue almost impossible to achieve, ”the report said.
The report cited the efforts of the former 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 to seek to discredit the outcome by invoking external interference and giving credence to conspiracy theories.”
The US has improved its political turnout, however, as the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice movements and other key events fueled a high turnout in the 2020 elections.
Beyond the US findings, the report recorded the lowest average score of global democracy since the index was first published in 2006. The Economist attributed the decline largely to “government-imposed restrictions on individual and civil liberties that have had globally in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “
“Around the world, in 2020, citizens have experienced the largest withdrawal of individual freedoms ever undertaken by governments during peace,” the report said. “Most people have come to the conclusion, based on evidence of a new deadly disease, that preventing a catastrophic loss of life justifies a temporary loss of liberty.”
As of Wednesday, COVID-19 has infected more than 104 million people globally, with about 2.2 million deaths from the virus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.