Armenia ahead of Azerbaijan in 2012 global democracy report

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Economist Intelligence Unit recently published annual report on the state of global democracy for 2012, with Armenia ranked 114th and Azerbaijan – 139th.

According to The Huffington Post, Democracy Index analyzes 165 independent countries and two territories to show the status of regional and worldwide democracy. The index uses five criteria: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Each nation is categorized across gradient levels of regimes: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most democratic countries are found in Scandinavia, with Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Denmark occupying the first four spots on the list, and New Zealand rounding out the top five.

Meanwhile, the global financial crisis that started in 2008 has precipitated the erosion in confidence in democracy, particularly in Europe. Five eurozone countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland) experienced a decline in their democracy score from 2011 to 2012, with the crisis in Greece and Italy dramatically highlighted by severe austerity measures and the replacement of democratically elected leaders with governments dominated by technocrats.