Malta has retained its place as one of only 19 ‘full democracies’ in the world, according to a new report by The Economist, which downgraded the United States to a ‘flawed democracy’ for the first time.
The annual Democracy Index report provides a snapshot of the state of democracy around the globe based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture.
Based on their scores in each category, countries are classified as one of four types of regime: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime.
Malta’s overall score this year remained unchanged at 8.93 out of a maximum of 10, making the country the 15th highest-ranked democracy, one spot above the United Kingdom.
US drops to flawed democracy level
Breaking down the results further, Malta scored highly for civil liberties but was the joint lowest in Western Europe for political participation, which measures not only voter turnout at elections but also the autonomy of minorities, women in Parliament and public participation in demonstrations.
The country also ranked the lowest among full democracies in the electoral process category, which considers the freedom and fairness of elections and whether opposition parties can realistically form a government.
This year’s edition of the Democracy Index, titled Revenge of the deplorables, was dominated by the political upheaval of Brexit and the US election, which coincided with the US dropping down to ‘flawed democracy’ level as trust in political institutions slumped to a historic low.
“This has had a corrosive effect on the quality of democracy in the US, as reflected in the decline in the US score,” the report said.
“The US President, Donald Trump, is not to blame for this decline in trust, which predated his election, but he was the beneficiary of it. Popular confidence in political institutions and parties continues to decline in many other developed countries, too.”
Apart from Malta, the remaining 18 full democracies include nine EU member states, with Sweden and Denmark the highest ranked at third and fifth respectively. The other 17 EU members are all considered flawed democracies, including Italy, France, Belgium and Greece.
No EU members considered full democracies in 2015 were demoted but Switzerland, Finland and the Netherlands all moved down on the list.
Eastern Europe, meanwhile, saw the most dramatic regression since the start of the index. The region featured the largest number of countries worsening, with the remaining countries either stagnating or improving only modestly.
Not one state ranks as a full democracy in the report, despite 11 being EU members.
Malta was the joint lowest in Western Europe for political participation, which also measures women in Parliament, among other issues.