Bangladesh
Democracy Index Bangladesh up four places in Economist Intelligence Unit's democracy index
Dhaka, February 4: Bangladesh has re-entered the Economist Intelligence Unit's index of democracy as a 'hybrid regime'. Compared to last year, Bangladesh has advanced four places this year.
The report has been compiled by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research and analysis division of Britain's influential magazine The Economist.
Since 2006, EIU has been reviewing the democratic situation in different countries of the world and publishing such reports. After the list published for the first time, Bangladesh has got the best position this year. However, according to the agency, the average scores of democracies in the world have dropped compared to the previous year.
Bangladesh was ranked 80th out of 165 countries in the organization's list of democracies last year. In this year's list, Bangladesh's place is four steps ahead. Out of their benchmark 10 points, Bangladesh's score this year is 5.99.
When the Economist Intelligence Unit first published a report on the democratic situation in 2006, Bangladesh's average score was 6.11. The agency says the list of 165 countries in the world includes 'hybrid regimes' in 35 countries like Bangladesh.
Among the South Asian countries, India and Sri Lanka are ahead of Bangladesh in terms of democracy. India ranks 53rd and Sri Lanka ranks 68th in the list. Bhutan is ranked 84th, Nepal 92nd, Pakistan 105th and Myanmar 135th.
Norway tops the list with 9.81 points. Other countries at the top include Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Australia and the Netherlands. The United States has been ranked in the list of 'flawed democracies'. At the bottom of the list is North Korea. There are also countries like DR Congo, Central Africa, Syria, Moon etc.
The report divides the democratic situation in the countries into four parts.
Those are - full democracy, flawed democracy, mixed governance (hybrid) and dictatorship.
If the average score of any country in the index is more than 8, it is assumed that there is full democracy. 6 to 8 is considered to be a flawed democracy, 4 to 6 is considered to be a mixed rule and below 4 is considered to be a dictatorship. EIU has included the governance system of Bangladesh in the third category i.e. mixed governance.
